Bond Between the Fallen
by Komusai Matakatana
Summary: When two lovers find themselves on opposing sides of a divine conflict that has lasted since the birth of existence, they cast aside all they have known and forsake their homelands in exchange for each other's arms. IxK SxK InuTxIzaxSessmom ON HIATUS!
1. Preface and Note to Readers

**Preface**

Beyond the planes of human inhabitance, through the glass and asphalt of man's ingenuity, past the realms of physical manifestation exists a world long thought to be one of mythos. Hiding behind countless barriers erected to mislead the probing hand of science away from truth, dual kingdoms warred for domination since their creation at the dawn of time. One a place of infinite paradise whilst the other an eternal night, stricken by fire and agony. Such was it that the gods and devils served sovereign to their homes amongst their demon and angel denizens, militant monarchies that swayed with lies and propaganda. Their children were born with natural hatred inseminated into their minds at the moment of creation, taught to despise the enemy with every fiber of their immortal being.

This was the divine conflict, incessant, unwavering, and spiraling into destruction. Earth was secondary battleground, a submissive dominion where humans were nothing more but tools of war. In the rise of empires and growing knowledge of the once primitive organisms, creatures of religious mythology grew wary of their inventive potential and implemented a safeguard bulkhead amongst the barriers to keep their existence lost in history and folklore.

Peace never came, even after severing travel to the mortal realm that divided Heaven and Hell. When the scale of battle had been tipped in the god's favor, the infernal domain erupted into a civil war, taking with it the life of their emperor and delving into chaos. Not long after, four great demons seized control of the cardinal directions thus stabilizing their home into cooperative territories. At the turn of the second millennia after the sacrifice of the son of the monotheistic god, the western king's throne had been usurped by the noble family of the Inu no Taisho. They were a species of demon known as youkai, animalistic entities originating in the molten caverns under the pacific islands.

Thus Hell grew collaborative once more, easing only slight tension in the tumultuous birthplace of flame. Theories of humanistic politics surfaced and settled civil conflict, turning focus back to the main enemy who had taken joy in watching its opponent tear itself to pieces over the last several thousand years. Now it grows silent with caution, lying in wait for the rekindled war effort.

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Author's Note

This story will contain constant references to more of the lesser known corners of mythology as well as angelic and demonic hierarchy. Unless you possess intricate knowledge of all three, I urge you to reserach anything that is unfamiliar to you; you might find something interesting.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!

**Emphasis on words and time lapses**

_Thoughts_

_"Telepathic communication and flashbacks"_


	2. A Victory Without a Sincere Smile

Inuyasha stood high above the lake of fire that surrounded his family's new dominion, restless and uneasy at what he saw before him. Armies were forming, joining rival breeds of youkai and demon alike under a single banner in which they worked together harmoniously. The inu-youkai cast a glance over to his elder brother who seemed to lack a similar sense of distaste, he instead had a triumphant smirk staining his icy lips. Both siblings were pale-skinned, sporting lengthy moonlit hair that reflected even the light of the eclipsed sun that hung ominously overhead. Their black robes were tattered and war-torn, exhibiting marks of sword and flame as well as the blood of a vast slaughter. Steely claws gleaming with lethality adorned the tips of their slender fingers, coated with gore and dominance.

He moved his eyes wearily back downwards, towards the exhibit of military strength. Inuyasha adjusted his armor slightly, loosening the leather straps that held it in place and dropping the breastplate to the brimstone beneath with a metallic clang. A weight found itself back onto his shoulders after several seconds, prompting him to snap his head sideways to face a magenta-striped arm resting firmly on his midnight garments. "You seem so distraught, little brother. Only moments after the combat has ceased do you revert to such a melancholy air; father would certainly be furious to witness this aloof specimen." Inuyasha chuckled lightly and spun about to confront the haughty presence that hung like the shadow of death behind him.

"Sesshoumaru, both you and father should know this to be my common face. May I only show happiness in the exhilaration of battle." He watched as the elegant man before him stroked his furred appendage pensively, idly picking out bits of flesh between the fine hairs. Magenta facial markings and a sapphire moon twisted in a perplexing display, highlighting the amber pools that shimmered in the center of his eyes. "I suppose that to be the truth. Very well then, if you would not find pleasure in those under our command then let us survey our new home with the others.

The siblings shot another swift glare at the assembly in the valley below and turned their backs to the molten plains in favor of proceeding to the winding path of igneous rock that led to a magnificent castle at the peak of a sharp hillside. Both brothers strode in a royal fashion, walking as if they were weightless under the heavy burden of the thick sulfurous air that penetrated their flaring nostrils. They passed a field of corpses, some imprisoned humans that paid the cost of their wickedness by having their immobilized carcasses eaten by ravens as they retained consciousness every day to be ravaged anew by their avian executioners. The others were demons that had lost their lives in the harsh fighting that had ended only an hour ago, waiting to be resurrected for renewed servitude under the new lord of the western territory.

They moved under the shade of ivory archways, ribs of some gargantuan beast that had met its fate in ancient times. Several more humans littered the road ahead, obstructing their pathway which both inu-youkai took offense. The ones who possessed even a single leg scampered away in terror, unable to scream as their lungs were scorched by the arid winds and filled to the throat with ash. All the others who were too pained to move or physically unable to do so met the wrath of the brothers and suffered an even more ghastly punishment than being cast into a herd of ravenous chimera.

Shaking the gore from their hands, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru donned equally grim smirks. Sharp fangs poked out through the corner of their mouths, gleaming morbidly under the refraction of the crimson fire that plagued the ashen forest next to them. Such things were a common sight in Hell; the infinite burning of nature signified their abhorrence towards the beauty of Earth and above. "A fleeting pleasure," Inuyasha mused, wiping the remnants of his victims onto the rare unstained portions of his robes. "But you got your wish, I have smiled." Sesshoumaru took on a more civilized approach and held his arms in the nearby flames to staunch the blood from his hands to the point of evaporation. "This one finds himself pleased then. Now, shall we continue," he offered dryly, extending his fingers back up to the castle.

Approaching the apex of the rocky hillside, the hellbound siblings sat down at the base of a tall stone-carved staircase to survey the fruits of their recent conquest. The western plains were Hell's crown jewel, having many large demonic civilizations as well as a prominent center of the reignited war effort against the gods and angels. The area also harbored the least population of human pollution of the four directions, the most being the north where Belial's rule reigned supreme. No one would dare call him a pacifist but he had indeed donated all his manpower to the forces of the other great demons, declaring openly that he did not support the divine conflict despite having been personally sent to Hell by the western god.

The eastern quadrant was controlled by Azhi Dahaka; a shadow being that often took the form of a black dragon. Born of Persian descent, he was the most feared of all four sovereigns due to his mysterious and sadistic nature. He bred forces of darkness and worked a solitary campaign against Heaven, sparking distaste amongst his servants but never retaliation. The south was under command of the Babylonian devil Pazuzu, a wind deity that carried famine and disease across Earth's surface. His very breath could drain the moisture from the body of a human, rendering them asunder with plague and pestilence. He sired many children with various wives, the most prominent being Sesshoumaru's mate who had been born a greater succubus. Daughter of Pazuzu and Lilith the lamia, Kagura held power over disease and men alike which she exercised daily. It would seem that the only one who had been able to successfully resist the wind sorceress was Sesshoumaru whose glacial nature captured her heart instantly and halted her sexual promiscuousness permanently.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru continued surveying their expanded kingdom with captivated interest until deciding to ascend the staircase and regroup with the rest of their family. The elder inu-youkai cast his golden stare back over to his younger once more and dropped the thin line of his lips into a small frown when he saw him to be secluded back in his usual sullen isolationism. "If not happiness then pride, little brother. Father has hoisted Beelzebub's corpse outside the door, has the sight of our enemy's death not given you even a semblance of exuberance?" Inuyasha slowed his pace down a little to a thoughtful walk, allowing him and his brother more time to talk in private.

_Sesshoumaru worries so much for me but I fear it to be wasted. He tells me that I am the channel for the emotion that he cannot show and if I am to change as he has then he would lose himself. Such a dramatic hyperbole for the lord of arrogance, for the last hour he has shown incessant concern. Disturbed because I do not smile, not a lack of emotion which I most certainly do exhibit often enough; this is what haunts his mind._

"_Rejoice for we have defeated Beelzebub, scourge of the west."  
_

_He says this as if I had wanted the war to end so quickly, eight thousand years was hardly enough time to suit my tastes. In times of peace I often find myself bored without means of entertainment, maybe I'll go to Earth tomorrow. _

"_Rejoice for we have broken the chain of monotheistic religion that has now gone blind to our corner of Hell."_

_That, I must admit, might have pulled my cheeks upward had I let it. All four ruling demons had been linked to a single god, Christian here, Judeo-Christian up north, and Islam east and south. Now we bring the weak surveillance of the Shinto banner upon us, those pacifist fools can do nothing to inhibit our growing ascension. _

"_Rejoice for we have ended a civil war that has lasted eight thousand years."_

_Bah, he was a fool to think that would make me smile. My home is on the battlefield not on the high chairs of frivolous politics. _

"You're thinking rather actively, little brother. I hope you aren't announcing offenses to anyone you might be unable to kill," Sesshoumaru growled insincerely, eliciting an amused scoff from Inuyasha. "Hope seems weak in you Sesshoumaru, perhaps you should pray instead." Both brothers stepped in silence before breaking into laughter, vaporizing the raining ash around them with powerful breaths. They reached the top of the winding staircase and came face to face with the bloodied carcass of their fallen enemy. Beelzebub, lord of the flies and devil of vanity lay with a stake through his thorax and abdomen. The death's head that had been engraved into the paper-thin membranes between the ridges of his wings had vanished with his last breath, holding no longer the mark of a devil. The sickening proboscis that protruded from his mouth flapped lifelessly in the infernal winds that howled like a jackal's cry.

The temperature was mild in Hell this day, not that any of the immortal residents could distinguish between or care about such a trivial thing. Cries of anguish from the damned humans always permeated the air with piercing shrillness but most had come to accept it as a form of artful music of sorts. Demons were still returning from the warzone below the castle, entering the walled city that served as a capital for the newly-reformed western empire. It was a place in desperate need of a strong but fair sovereign, a crime-ridden and prejudiced slum where the strongest ruled without mercy. At one point in history, that was the norm for all of Hell but now things had changed. Demons and Devils collaborated in one way or another despite feuding lineage and directed all hatred and strength upwards, past the eternally eclipsed sun and the barriers and the Earth and the barriers, all the way to Heaven which trembled at their unity.

Sesshoumaru stopped in front of the large metal doors that stood ominously between the great archways at the entrance of the castle, candidly pulling aside Inuyasha into the shadows while a steady string of youkai poured into the structure. "It would seem that they've finished executing the old vassals, father and our mothers will be expecting us soon. Remember, father is a daiyoukai now and he commands even more respect than ever before. Many will come to make offerings and praise; we mustn't be any different so you're going to have to cast aside that morose haze that stains your face or your image will not reflect well upon our family." Inuyasha straightened up; forcing his scowl into a neutral expression and fixing the tousled streaks of silver hair that covered his eyes.

"Maintain the appearance of nobility within even the most vexing of situations; are those not the words you carved into my arm when we were younger?" Inuyasha asked with raised eyebrows, using his mild experience in arcane magick to repair his shredded robes as Sesshoumaru did the same. The elder inu-youkai clicked the hilt of his sword threateningly, a hint of vermillion stinging his eyes for added intimidation which didn't seem to work as well on Inuyasha as it used to. He looked at his brother's weapon with mock curiosity, knowing full well that he wouldn't resort to such foolish antics just to prove a point. "Say what you will but Bakusaiga won't dull on my flesh ever again."

With that, the younger brother slinked into the line of youkai entering the castle, ripping an imp vertically in half when it had accidentally bumped into him. Sesshoumaru sighed and rubbed his forehead as he too melded into the line, telekinetically hurling the entrails in front of the door well into the distance before heading inside.

_Little brother…the ice that dwells in our hearts might yet make this land a temperate climate. But I myself have changed in preparation to yield an heir within the next few centuries, what will it take to make you melt as I have?_

He carried his bitter musings well until finding himself emerged in an ornate chamber away from the howl of the searing winds, with a vaulted ceiling decorated with an assortment of rare stones wound together in marbled patterns. Portraits of Beelzebub fueled a strong fire in the center of the room where most of the demons roasted the flesh of their enemy's corpses for immediate consumption. Throngs of youkai littered the infernal palace in all directions, drinking wine made from the black grapes of Hell's few remaining fertile valleys and the fragrant blood of angels which glowed a faint silver. Sesshoumaru expertly navigated his way through the myriad of creatures until finding his brother hunched over the fresh carcass of a wyvern, gorging hungrily on the raw meat until a spike of youki signaled him to stop.

"What is it?"

Sesshoumaru growled as the crunching of violet scales entered his skull, causing him to chastise Inuyasha with a sharp glare upon seeing that blood stained his clothes once again. "At least tell me that the beast was an acceptable kill," he seethed as people started to gather around the two with piqued interest. The younger inu-youkai swallowed hard, feeling the metallic flesh grate against his throat before settling in his stomach. "Anyone that designates me without a proper title is an acceptable kill, is it not?" Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at his brother's foolishness and stopped himself from punching him squarely in the jaw. "I doubt she knew that you were the son of the new daiyoukai nor any honorifics in our native language, you idiot." Inuyasha frowned and looked back towards the gutted half-dragon, shrugging eventually and ripping out the liver. "No sense in letting her go to waste then, I haven't eaten in months. Ah, speaking of which, neither have you. Feel free to take what you will, you'll find plenty of exotic things inside these kinds of monsters." Sesshoumaru crossed his arms while everyone around him had bowed upon learning them to be the joint heirs of their new master and fanning out after leaving several small offerings of jewelry and unique carvings.

"What's left," he asked casually after seeing most of the attention going elsewhere in the lavish chamber, swiping a finger at the wounds and licking the fresh blood to see if it met his tastes. The action itself was unnecessary seeing as how they had deteriorated into a state where rotting human organs would have been welcomed without hesitation. Inuyasha spread the wyvern's stomach apart and peeked inside, scanning the remains and mentally making a list of what he saw. "Pancreas…left lung…brain but I know you don't like that…ah, here we are," he stated in a straining tone while leaning his body further and further into the interior of the half-dragon's corpse, eventually receding with a bulbous object in his bloodied hands. "Wyvern heart, still hot too…catch."

Inuyasha tossed the organ into Sesshoumaru's eagerly awaiting grasp, landing with a wet splat in his palms and leaking various fluids onto the floor. "Very good, little brother. You've redeemed yourself in my eyes," he declared with humorous impudence, hesitating no longer and sinking his incisors deep into the spongy tissue. Sesshoumaru was halfway through his short meal when he noticed a familiar presence behind him as well as Inuyasha looking past him to give a casual greeting whilst submerging himself in entrails. The elder inu-youkai's eyes took on a glossy gleam as a pair of outstretched blackened wings wrapped around his chest and the dry air of the desert winds scratched the nape of his neck.

"Impeccable timing for arrival as usual…Kagura." The name slipped delicately from his tongue like the paralyzing venom secreted by the glands under his fangs, lingering in the air like a sultry cloud. Leathery membranes stroked sensually across his robes, retracting as the succubus rotated her body around to meet her mate face to face. "I've been looking for you all over the battlefield ever since it ended but I suppose you came here with your father, did you not?" Sesshoumaru's lips contorted into a smirk before bringing them down forcefully atop the demonic wind sorceress, reveling in the intoxicating feeling of his life energy being drained by her mother's heritage. Black veins bulged across his face and neck as he was drawn closer to submission, breaking off only at the last second to keep himself from doing something he might regret in the middle of his father's court.

Kagura opened her crimson eyes and batted her lashes playfully, licking the black blood from her mouth and purring in satisfaction. "You've always tasted the best," she cooed, wiping her lips across Sesshoumaru's moko-moko which caused him to scowl and Inuyasha to snicker lightly before breaking back into his usual dark ambience. "Oh, I see Inuyasha-kun has miraculously retained his defining doom and gloom throughout today's events. You poor thing, you're just depressed because the murder has ceased, aren't you?" The succubus jabbed with mock sympathy, leaving Sesshoumaru's embrace as well as sneaking a bit of his wyvern heart and crouching down in front of the younger brother. She eased herself down and leaned next to him, throwing a sisterly arm around his shoulder.

"Maybe you could join us later. I wouldn't mind sharing my body with another handsome youkai such as yourself, there's certainly enough of me to suit both your tastes simultaneously." Inuyasha rolled his eyes and stifled a smile; he knew what his sister was doing. She was trying to get him to laugh at Sesshoumaru's outraged expression rather then ease any existing sexual tension. "Or maybe," she suggested innocently, rubbing the sheath of his sword sensually. "You could make your own hole." Inuyasha couldn't contain himself any longer as his elder brother turned rigid and hauled his mate upwards from the ground, slinging her over his shoulder while her wings flapped madly in a futile attempt to escape.

"Let me go!" She shrieked, resorting to kicking his back like a resistant child as he weaved between the rapidly parting crowds. "I refuse," Sesshoumaru growled in amusement. "Especially after you've imparted me with such an attractive idea." Kagura immediately settled down and let herself be carried off without additional struggle. "I'm so fortunate to have found such a devilish specimen of a youkai," she cackled seductively, her banshee laugh growing fainter as they disappeared up an elegant staircase.

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head in a bemused fashion while the court turned their wide stares away from the upstairs and sank back into comfortable conversation. "Unbelievable," he muttered, letting a ghost of a smile sneak up on the corner of his mouth when a familiar youki hopped towards him as he leaned his back against the wyvern's corpse. "Mew!" A small nekomata bounded between the guests, leaping into her master's arms with an ecstatic purr. "Indeed, little kitten. You will be the only one to see me smile without any weight tugging at my lips."

Some may find it strange that an inu-youkai kept a feline familiar, an animalistic spirit that served demon's dutifully as one class below. Sesshoumaru harbored an imp familiar for a number of years before simply growing weary of its incessant nagging and casting it to the bottom of the deepest pit in the ninth circle of Hell. "I witnessed quite an assortment of praiseworthy feats coming from you today, Kilala. You did well, how many kills?"

"Mew!"

"I'm glad, not past the record but still in three digits. Would you like me to find a hydra's tail for you to celebrate?" The nekomata rubbed the side of its head against Inuyasha's neck and reached up to lick his nose, earning a small chuckle. Kilala prized her master's happiness and did everything she could to get him to smile, taking examples from the rest of her foster family. The inu-youkai placed her gently atop his shoulder and went off in search of a suitable dinner for his familiar, eventually finding what he was looking for near the southern entrance to the castle. Scylla, the third daughter of Lilith and Pazuzu, Kagura's younger sister rested on her tail idly against the wall. She was a rather strange creature, a fish-tailed mermaid with the heads of four dogs sprouting from her waist which seemed to be docile as long as they were away from the smell of meat.

Their ears perked up at recognizing Inuyasha's scent and panted heavily with their tongues out in recognition. "Oh, Inuyasha-sama," Scylla cried in surprise, her naturally singing tune casting a siren's song with every word. "I've been looking all over for someone of your family. As you can hear, I've brushed up on your language since we last met." The Inu-youkai crouched down with a small smirk and pet one of the canines behind the ears, suppressing a grin when it howled in delight. Kilala hissed and transformed into her larger state when the others began barking at her, silencing them immediately with the flames that danced around her raised hackles.

"Cease this meaningless quarrel immediately," Inuyasha sighed, smoothing out his companions ruffled fur with the back of his hand. "And my dear sister, you know me to be fluent in all manner of Mediterranean dialogue. Don't stress yourself just to speak with my family." Scylla smiled a toothy smirk and rubbed her pets under their muzzles to keep them from snapping at Kilala. "Inuyasha-sama, please don't waste your rare kindness at my expense. One day you will have a woman who owns that treasure, perhaps I could bring my sisters out to see which can meet your preferences." Inuyasha stood from stroking Kilala's ears and ruffling the coarse hairs at the top of her head, much to her ire. "Unlike my brother I don't find myself attracted to the concept of having my genitals rotted from the inside out as succubi are so renowned to do. I consider you blessed to be the only one of your lineage to have a hydra's blood."

"Nothing is blessed in Hell, Inuyasha-sama," Scylla giggled, dismembering her tail with a slender claw and tossing it to the floor where Kilala immediately pounced atop the serpentine appendage and began munching happily. "I remember you had an affinity for such odd cuisine, little kitten. I shed my skin only yesterday so it should be particularly flavorful." The hydra brought her fingers to her lips to stifle another laugh at the enthusiastic nekomata and flared up her aura to boost her tail's regenerative capabilities. "Oh my, Inuyasha-sama I nearly forgot. Mother and father are with your parents in the throne room." The inu-youkai nodded as Kilala finished her meal and shrunk back into her secondary form, leaping once again to her master's shoulder.

"I suppose I'll seek them out then. These guests that plague our castle merely wish to flaunt all over them in hopes of receiving any sort of meager benefit they may offer. Sickening really, I'll be with the daiyoukai for the duration of the evening if anyone worthy of my attention asks of my whereabouts. I trust your knowledge of whom I speak of." Scylla nodded and pushed herself away from the wall, motioning to depart in the opposite direction. "Don't tell me you wish to involve yourself in their pollution?" The hydra spun around and gave her brother-in-law a saucy wink. "Of course not, I'm hunting for any suitable species of dragon to serve as a mate." Inuyasha and Kilala exchanged knowing glances, tossing a private joke between themselves which resulted in the nekomata breathing a feline laugh.

"In that case, I'm pleased to inform you that I've done away with a percentage of the competition. I bid you good evening, little sister." And with that, the three of them parted without another word.

_She wants me to find a woman? As if such a thing would make me smile with sincerity._

"Of course you'll always be the only female in the smoldering coal that acts as my heart, Kilala," Inuyasha cooed as smoothly as he could, his naturally gruff tone making it sound rather awkward. Long ago when he had just accepted the nekomata as his familiar, Inuyasha discovered that she could always manage to understand whatever was on his mind without being told. Her purr grew louder as she snuggled up to his neck, tickling the sensitive flesh with her whiskers in hopes of hearing her master's laugh which she prized over all other things in the vast universe. She heaved a feline sigh when he remained silent, off in the distance as he so often was.

His melancholy nature had grown worse with age, secluding him from the luxury of even the most modest of acquaintances and keeping him strictly under the practice of his sword. The Tetsusaiga as it was known infamously throughout the realms, forged from his father's fang and cast in the bosom of Hell itself. Denizens of both worlds feared the unholy combination of its destructive potential mixed with the murderous desire of its wielder. Inuyasha always had it by him, resting on the pillow next to him in bed as a testament to his solitary lifestyle.

_Father has two mates, Sesshoumaru has Kagura, every prince in the other three directions has at least a single heir, and I am left to my own devices. I am black in mind, body, and soul, surpassing the corruption of even Azhi Dahaka. Power like this has no right to be shared with another. _

"Mew!"

"You're right, I should subside my musings for a later date, now is simply not the time to dwell on an old tangent," Inuyasha sighed, strolling carelessly through the extravagant corridors and avoiding as many of the insufferable guests as he could. Only an hour after the war had concluded did the demons lay down their weapons in exchange for silver-lined goblets, drinking in abundance to the occasion. Even Hell had celebrations when the time called for them, taking on striking similarity to those held by human aristocracies on the Earth's surface. Such cultural adaption sickened the inu-youkai to an unbearable extent, the very thought of his race taking influence from an inferior species set his blood on fire.

He blasted through the hallways as black pigment began to seep through the corners of his eyes, eventually coating the surface in a glossy sheen in which absorbed light without refraction. Inuyasha continued down the sparsely populated chambers until another familiar presence snaked towards him from above. "Rasetsu," he spat carnally, red halos forming in his irises as the powers of both his black heart and youkai heritage mixed together, separating the pools of darkness with a dull crimson glow. A large spider youkai scuttled across the high ceiling, dislodging bits of stone and wood as its spear-like limbs hooked into the structure and propelled him forward. Possessing only a pair of humanoid arms and six arachnid limbs, Rasetsu broke his pace and fell downwards, flipping so he landed upright on his legs.

Kilala flexed her claws on her master's shoulder and hissed violently, bowing her front pause downwards as she raised her hackles. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles and took a defensive stance against the youkai that so often sought to engage him during social gatherings. The two of them had harbored a fierce grudge ever since birth with the inu-youkai always coming out as the victor while the other waited shamefully for resurrection. He was one of the few demons who knew the extent of his full lineage and despised him for it, accidentally coming across his most incriminating secret.

Inuyasha was born to inu-youkai parents but his mother, Izayoi was once a fallen angel. Her wings and power over creation had been stripped when she fell in love with his father in the days before the Earth and divine realms were separated. After countless attempts on her life, the Inu no Taisho had invoked the arcane ritual of demon marking and thus transforming her into one of his own species alongside his already existing mate, Sesshoumaru's mother: Akkiyoru. This obscure heritage was the main drive towards his pursuit of corruption which hadn't stopped until he possessed a black trinity, a fully tainted mind, body, and soul.

"Inuyasha, I was surprised when I didn't find you on the battlefield talking to the crows as you so often do," Rasetsu growled in a dangerously low tone, needle-like fangs hiding behind two pronounced tusks that grew from the corner of his lower jaw. "Human vagabonds have already taken to the corpses for sustenance; you should hurry if you are to make it in time to converse with your friends." Viridian neurotoxin drained to the marbled floors in thick globs with every passing syllable, causing the inu-youkai and his nekomata familiar to sneer at the repulsive scent. "Enough," Inuyasha barked, taking his hand from the protective position over his nostrils and bringing it aside in a dramatic gesture. "Have you come to waste my time with talk or another meager exhibition, either way I won't tolerate your pungent stench any longer."

The spider youkai shifted his weight in awkward sidling movements, luminescent yellow eyes piercing his rival with a fierce stare. "Of course communication with animals has always been a defining characteristic of angels." The inu-youkai narrowed his eyes into blackened slits, the abysmal stripes on his cheeks morphing into jagged stigma. "Kilala, wait for me in the throne room with father and uncle. Look over your paws in only a moment to find me cleaning this vermin from my gauntlets."

"Mew."

The two-tailed kitten hopped from her master's body and onto the floor, casting one last look backwards before scampering away. "Now then, I wonder if this disgraceful insect has only just returned from Heaven's cells?" Inuyasha thought out loud in a mocking mannerism, eliciting a wet cracking noise from the throat of his enemy. "You offend my eyes, have at you." In a quick burst of speed, the inu-youkai lodged his claws deep inside the spider's chest cavity, popping every organ he grasped into mangled tissue. Rasetsu shrieked in agony as his opponent took his time with dealing him the grace of death, purposefully missing all vital areas until he ripped the heart from under his ribcage.

The demonic arachnid immediately silenced and fell limp, escaping the mercy of gravity by the fact that he was still being grasped by Inuyasha. Several passerby's stopped in their brisk walks to look at the spectacle with grim smirks playing across their features. The inu-youkai retracted his hand, still clutching the insect's heart and kicked his corpse forcefully to the ground and witnessing a black mist ascend from the depths of the torn remains. It was common knowledge that all souls faced judgment in Heaven where demons were tried under blatantly biased court officials, lacing their history with lies and false acts against the gods to gain the angelic public's consent to interrogate and torture if necessary which it always seemed to be.

Once the black soul had dematerialized through the ceiling, the small crowd set off towards their previous destinations, departing with small comments of admiration directed to their new daiyoukai's second son. Inuyasha drained the black and red haze from his eyes and looked down with a scrutinizing glare at the vulgar carcass, casually sniffing his heart and discarding it when he found the scent to fail miserably at enticing his stomach. Telekinetically lifting the ragdoll body with an open palm, Inuyasha closed his hand into fist and crushed Rasetsu's corpse into a sickly ball of dripping flesh until a black light shone dimly around it and dispersed the spider to some unknown dimension.

Inuyasha shrugged off his combat mentality into his common vacant, dreary façade and proceeded around the corridors until discovering the scent of his parents and their esteemed guests. The task itself wasn't exceedingly difficult, Pazuzu's natural odor of the desert sands stood out quite well amongst the scent of blood that emitted from nearly all of the castle's other occupants. Ducking out of the myriads and into a narrow, shaded passage, Inuyasha crept stealthily forward until he was halted by two guards brandishing lengthy pikes.

"Name yourself, only infernal beings of the most noble caliber may enter beyond this point," the left sentry, a skeletal jackal inquired with an authoritative tone. Inuyasha sneered in disgust of the sentinel's naivety, remaining silent to see if the other might recognize him to be his father's son. His patience was rewarded when he stepped forward after a small examination and bowed with his weapon lowered to the floor. The jackal immediately did the same once seeing his companion's example and looked over Inuyasha with recently-obtained respect. "Yes, hair of the moonlit nature and jagged scars under the eyes as black as Hell's lost sun. You may proceed and if I may hope, without thoughts of my execution."

The inu-youkai steadied his gaze and nodded slowly. "Your names?"

"I am Amon, fourth generation to a sphinx of the middle kingdom and this is my acquaintance Malphas, the corpse dancing crow," the Egyptian dog stated humbly, tapping his feet uneasily as the wall-mounted torches cast a dismal glow over his new prince. "I see," Inuyasha cooed, stepping towards the door and resting his grasp on the jeweled handle. He gave the raven-headed creature to his right a curt nod and pushed the bulkhead ajar. "Hinder me once more and know the suffering of a thousand burning souls," the inu-youkai hissed bitterly, leaving the small antechamber with unnerving silence as he entered the throne room.

Conversation boomed about the spacious parlor, echoing rhythmically off the marble columns and directly into Inuyasha's angled canine ears. Five commanding figures stood grouped together around three exceedingly ornate baroque seats in the far end of the grandiose chamber. Geometric spaces in the walls outlined where portraits and furniture pertaining to the fly Beelzebub once stood, long gone and most likely fueling an inferno elsewhere. Impish servants raced frantically about the floors, moving in new décor from every exotic corner of Hell's nine circles.

Inuyasha fought back a proud smirk as his father stood with his back to him, the black seal of the death's head engraved deep into his flesh and signifying him as the rightful sovereign of the western plains. The light patter of tiny paws scampered ever closer as Kilala rubbed her neck against her master's leg and hopping atop her usual perch on his shoulder. All in the room had felt the emergence of his black aura from the start but only know turned to face him. "Ah, Inuyasha, I hope you'll do us well by lessening the distance between ourselves sometime soon," the Inu no Taisho stated warmly, smoothing down his robes and re-lacing his gilded armor to his chest.

The younger inu-youkai bowed formally and heeded to his father's request, joining his parents as well as his two aunts and uncle in front of the ornamental chairs. He stood wordlessly next to his mother, who placed her hand gently on his shoulder and shot him a loving smile, shifting into a frown at the scent of death that radiated from her son's body. Akkiyoru lifted her hand in a casual greeting, scowling at her own son's absence. Her moko-moko hung low on her shoulders, already cleaned of blood and coated in fragrant oils while her black pendant reflected brilliant spectrums of distorted light. Pazuzu and Lilith with their respective familiars, a locust and a viridian python also gave their own haphazard welcomes before reentering the previous discussion.

"Inuyasha-kun, we were just wondering where to start now that we've stabilized the region. What do you intend to do," the lamia purred, stroking the serpent adorning her shoulders with soothing motions. All eyes turned to the stoic youth who in turn fumbled for an answer. "I had thought nothing of it, I'm afraid that I'm quite the useless politician off the battlefield but…taking a trip to Earth seems attractive." The six of them sank into an uncomfortable silence as the sentence finished, lifted only by the dry scrapes of Pazuzu's locust. The black-skinned, four winged devil of the southwest wind seemed to be the only one without a pensive expression, his years of experience forming an answer within seconds. "I'll remain still for you to explain the benefit of such an obscure journey," Akkiyoru scoffed, breaking away from the circle for a moment to redirect a chain of imps to move their load further across the wall. "Hmph, as if I would take pleasure trips to the realm of humans; of course I have good reason to stray while you tame the city tomorrow. I merely wish to test the security of the Shinto pantheon and establish a general idea of exactly how much I can get away with before a swarm of seraphim try to capture me."

The Inu no Taisho nodded his approval as did Izayoi but a little less enthusiastically whilst Akkiyoru shouted her consent from the far end of the room. "So you wish to examine how long your presence can go undetected, Inuyasha such a thing is reckless even for you." The black-striped inu-youkai met the marbled floors with a downcast gaze, formulating the best use of his ample tact. "Mother," he sighed, meeting her softened amber eyes with his steely pupils. Looking around the room and noting Akkiyoru's magenta facial markings and his parent's matching violet stripes, long vanished from his own face and overtaken by blackness. "I'm positive that even if Izanagi and Amida faced me in a state where my limbs were bound, I could defeat them with only my corruption."

Izayoi's lips switched back and forth between a smile and a deep frown, not sure whether to allow such a perilous examination but eventually caved in when her son flashed her one of his rare smiles. "Well…alright, just be cautious once you're topside. Okay?" Inuyasha nodded and bowed slightly, immediately retracting his smile into his usual indistinguishable thin line of his lips. Kilala looked down at her master with a chastising glare and let out a feline sigh, idly licking her paws.

"So where has my eldest daughter run off too, Inuyasha-kun," Lilith asked with disinterest, seemingly out of the lack of discussion. The younger inu-youkai scowled much to his aunt's amusement and shook his head. "Sharing common interests with my brother on one of the upper floors, I trust you to understand my allusions." Leathery wings flapped once in mirth as the lamia traced her hand over the scaly appendages and ignored the comment. "Well then, we'll just let them have their fun for now. But if you see them before us, tell them they're to meet us in the city tomorrow to help your family establish control over that barbaric settlement."

Inuyasha gave his aunt a curt nod, motioning to leave when anything in the elegant expanse of the throne room failed to capture his attention. "Inuyasha wait." He spun abruptly on his heals and found his father only a step from his face. "Yes, General?"

"I want you to sleep tonight."

"Father…"

"Please, Inuyasha. I can sense it in your aura that tension remains from the war but you must realize that it ended two hours ago. Come now, it's nearly midnight in the other worlds. I want you to sleep and clear your mind, you will have to adopt a new combative mentality for the politics ahead."

"Father…please?"

"If not for meditation then for recuperation, my son. You'll want your strength if you'll be fighting seraphim tomorrow."

Inuyasha held steadfast for a moment but reluctantly accepted his father's command, starting his exit when a hand found his shoulder. He refused to move and let the Inu no Taisho's mouth creep up to his ears. "One more thing," he whispered, looking around the room and sighing in relief when he saw Izayoi and Akkiyoru thoroughly engaged in conversation. "I want you to have a woman warm your bed tonight; I've prepared a room for you on the third floor in the western wing." Inuyasha tightened his structure and stood rigid at the information. "Is that an order, General?"

"Indeed, it is. Adhere to it as if it were one of attack."

The black inu-youkai gazed in distraction at the pale skin on his right arm, tapping his claws on an invisible surface. "So be it, I'll find some superfluous wanton in the main hall." He felt his father's mischievous presence fade into the distance as he joined his two mates and sat for the first time in their new thrones. Inuyasha sighed heavily, looking towards Kilala who did the best she could to exhibit a small shrug. "I suppose I'll see you in the morning then, little kitten." The nekomata mewed mournfully and leapt down from her master, off to scavenge another bite to eat.

He had his handle on the exit to the grand entrance when a host of documents were thrust in his direction. "You're statistics, nephew," Pazuzu stated dryly, the malaria on his breath causing Inuyasha to cough in revulsion before taking the papers. It was customary in Hell to view one's battle record after the end of a war or sometimes after a single fight, comparing it to your family in hopes of possessing the greatest numbers. "Your kills were in ten figures this time, more than any of the two of us combined and thrice for the soldiers. You did well Inuyasha but I should expect no less from one as dedicated to slaughter as you. A young demon with a black trinity and no life to live is a valuable asset to the war effort, bring your ancient fury to the angels and we'll see victory within ten millennia."

Inuyasha faced his uncle with startling indifference after receiving such praise, mentally scanning the contents of the documents and blinking them into his designated room for safe storage. "I have no life to live, you say?"

"Indeed, hollow and motivated by corruption, without attachments and will to remain on top as long as you can keep killing. You're an indiscriminate slayer of immortals, Inuyasha. One day and I mean this with the utmost sincerity, you might be able to waltz right into heaven and send all those feathered creatures into the realm of nonexistence." Inuyasha closed his eyes and let out a dragging breath, easing the door open just a bit more. "I follow the path of blackness without just cause; every life I take sets another stone in the road ahead of me. I don't know where I'll find myself when next I wake, I might even join in Belial's philosophy of unity without war."

"I pray you won't!"

"I simply don't know Uncle; I bid you a good evening."

"Make sure to pick an expendable woman."

Inuyasha chuckled lightly and entered the main hall where guests were still arriving even as the eclipsed sun had finally set over the molten horizon, invoking the ascension of the crimson moon. The blackened youkai immediately scanned the crowds with a calculating eye, shifting his personality into one a little more attractive. He approached a panther youkai by the middle fountain, her midnight colored tail swishing absent-mindedly in the air. She halted her conversation with several of her kin as a powerful youki seared the atmosphere behind her. Raven-haired and graced with fine features and firm skin tanned under the southern plains, she was a suitable specimen at least. Many of the other females in her company pleated their dresses and displayed their chests as the emotionless prince insinuated himself into their circle. Their faces fell when he chose his first sight and brought her hand steadily to his lips, causing her to blush and giggle in a sultry laugh before leaving up the stairs in an escort position.

"I'm honored, Inuyasha-sama. I promise you won't be disappointed," she purred, dragging him to the wall and slipping her hand steadily down his robes, latching onto his flesh with a firm grasp. Inuyasha sneered and bared his fangs, assaulting the panther with a feral hiss which made her skin turn several shades lighter. "You'll serve me not in the halls but in my chambers, now walk with me." She steadily regained herself with a flustered shake of her head and hung like an accessory from his arm, smiling seductively upon stopping at a room that had a brass plate engraved with Inuyasha's name hanging from the knob.

"Oh my, I was so distracted that I forgot to introduce my…"

"Save your designation, you will most likely not survive the night. Tell me your name in the morning."

Inuyasha burst through the door and slammed it with a loud crash after dragging his maiden over the threshold, causing several artifacts to fall from the walls. He brought his lips down hard upon hers and flared up his black aura, draining black and crimson into his eyes and causing the panther demoness to buckle under the strain of his raw power. The black youkai threw her to the bed and straddled her just as quickly tearing their clothes with powerful swipes from his claws, indifferent to the fact that they grated against her ribs beneath the fabric. She moaned in both pain and masochistic pleasure, feeling him position himself at her entrance without further foreplay and launching himself violently inside her.

_Nothing but a common whore, devoid of any true innocence. Look how she enjoys such harsh treatment._

He watched in satisfied distaste as the eyes rolled back in her head, screaming in ecstasy with every passing thrust. Inuyasha fought the urge to draw her blood but ultimately lost, sinking his incisors deep into her neck and rewarding himself with a mouthful of the black blood of hellbound immortals. Unfortunately for her, she took the false hint to do the same and clasped her jaws around the junction between Inuyasha's head and shoulders. She immediately broke the bite and shrieked in agony as the bottom half of her head melted off her body, melting into a solution of entrails on the mattress. The rest of her body suffered the same fate as the sickening gurgling noises erupted from her decaying throat as she was corroded from the inside out, eventually becoming nothing more but a revolting stain on the bedspread.

Inuyasha sighed and sat upright, letting his breathing turn to normal as well as the color of his eyes while he looked below him in disgust. "Stupid wench, does she not know that the blood of one with a black trinity will dissolve even low-ranking gods?" He cooled himself, turning anger into absent emotion as he cleaned himself with a small cloth he found near the bathroom and flipped the mattress upside-down, hurling piles of gore onto the marble floor in a sophisticated manner. Reverting into an ambience of indifference and deflating his sex drive, Inuyasha rummaged through a nearby closet and unrolled a clean set of linens which he proceeded to smooth and lay flat on his bed.

There was a small scratching coming from the door, one that the inu-youkai knew by heart. He tossed a pillow against the headboard and opened the door to meet Kilala sitting on her haunches with an unreadable expression in her face. She raised herself haughtily and strode into the chamber, hopping atop the bed and turning once before wrapping into a ball of fur and lying down. Inuyasha rolled his eyes towards the heavens and bolted the door shut, not that it would effectively bar anyone who seriously desired an entrance.

He walked back towards his nekomata companion with long graceful strides and slid under the covers but not before scratching behind her ears, causing her to hum to life in a gentle purr. Inuyasha rested his head atop his crossed arms and stared blankly at the ceiling, enjoying his first rest in eight millennia.

"Mew!"

"Yes, you're correct. I apologize for the odor."

"Mew?"

"No, I don't possess any unnatural attraction towards the Felis genus."

"Mew."

"Indeed, goodnight, little kitten." Inuyasha tossed himself sideways and look out the stone-carved window, letting the howl of the arid winds lull him into state of half-consciousness. He watched his family's new empire as its torches began to burn out one by one and bask in the glow of the vermillion moon. Always a perfect disk and closer to the surface than Earth's lunar body, dominating the night sky as a watchful giant. To him, Hell was beautiful, Hell was home and it would always remain so without a doubt. Even the morbid cries of the damned humans seemed to be silenced at his high altitude, providing an eerie quiet which he had scarcely known.

Kilala heaved a large breath next to him as she succumbed to the benevolent embrace of slumber who turned her numbing touch over to Inuyasha. He fought desperately, he wanted to think but he found it impossible as the burden of his eyelids proved greater than any foe he had encountered in his long campaigns. Nuzzled by the searing night air which had long filled his lungs, the black prince of the western plains fell slave to his first sleep of a new age.


	3. Preparing to Launch

Deep in the heart of the western plains of the infernal realm, the crimson moon began its steady descent ever downwards. The eclipsed sun loomed threateningly just below the horizon, creeping over the igneous mountainsides and starting to evaporate the small amounts of moisture in the air that had formed during the short night. Lighting the fields ablaze in an arid climate, scorched winds howled furiously throughout the remnants of yesterday's battlefield. Damned humans writhed from their positions on the blackened stone as their flesh was seared anew, sounding as a macabre rooster to announce the new day as the castled city roared to life under their new banner. It was indeed the commencement of an age under the reign of the inu-youkai family, no longer was the west besieged by the oppressive rule of the monstrous fly Beelzebub.

Inuyasha awoke with a start, his instincts launching him into a state of alertness that bypassed any grogginess he may have felt upon entering consciousness. Sitting up quickly and leaning against the headboard of his bed, the black-souled youkai drained the red haze from his eyes which always plagued him after slumber. He hadn't been long, five hours at the most but that was enough to set him on edge. Events occurred swiftly in Hell and if one remained still for too long, the sands of time were likely to bury them. Inuyasha sneered and covered his nostrils as the vile scent of stagnant carnage permeated the air around him, heated to a repulsive odor by the morning sun.

Kilala sat on her haunches next to her master, watching with vague amusement as he swatted at the stench as if it had physically manifested itself into a combatable being. All those of demonic lineage are, in contrast to the angel's power over creation, gifted with the ability of spontaneous destruction which made daily chores quite a bit easier. Inuyasha twirled a clawed finger once in the air and ripped the bloodstains and spoiled chunks of meat from the floor, banishing them to a place where they wouldn't offend his nose. He sprung upwards from the mattress and unlatched several windows from all around the ornate bedroom to dissipate the foul ambience, motioning for Kilala to join him at the adjacent veranda when he had finished.

The nekomata broke into a purr and hopped down from the bed, scampering out behind her master as he slid open a set of large wooden doors to reveal a lavish piece of architecture overlooking the western plains. She followed him to a decorative armchair and leapt onto his lap, snuggling into her dual tails in the folds of his recently-adorned robes. Inuyasha took a moment to admire the scenery; his room was at the opposite side of the battlefield, facing away from the massacre in favor of viewing Hell's more natural beauty. Deciduous forests burned incessantly with sapphire flames, casting blue shadows over the gradually lightening ground, dancing in tune to the rising sun in between snaking rivers of molten rock.

He scratched Kilala under her chin until her head began to arch up vertically, causing him to snicker lightly. Turning once more to gaze admirably at the splendor of the eighth circle, his home and his feudal province; the most prized of all nine realms. The first seven were the iconic and common image of the underworld, inhabited by wicked humans who served their price for atonement through constant torture administered by lesser demons who fancied themselves superior. Tartarus, the ninth circle was a place of infinite blackness where no divine presence had ever penetrated. It was the world in which the first and only emperor of Hell had been exiled and sealed in the ghastly abyss, shackled to the mercy of time. Many powerful demons had gone there either under his loyalty or to escape the war effort against the angels which they deemed frivolous, a fate in which many considered to claim the northern sovereign Belial next due to his absence of participation in the conflict.

Inuyasha was brought out of his musings by the echo of a charred tree falling heavily upon the igneous stone below, sending weighted echoes rebounding through the atmosphere. After regaining his wits from the jarring noise and sheathing his sword that had slipped from its sheath the instant it entered it his ears, he settled back down and stroked Kilala slowly with a thoughtful expression. "I experienced a bit of nostalgia last night, little kitten."

"Mew?"

"Indeed, I dreamed of the event that ended in me taking you as my familiar."

Kilala had come willingly into his service after Inuyasha had freed her from death near the border between the eastern and west. She had been designated as food for the renowned demon, Demogorgon who had long since been deported to Tartarus by none other than the black-youkai's own influence. He had discovered her beaten and bloodied, fighting for breath in the creatures jaws before he had slain it under the guise of him spreading his filth away from his territory. It had been revealed since then that Inuyasha had felt a certain foreign compelling notion in his mind that day that prompted him to save her. The two of them had never understood it nor discussed it a second time.

Demogorgon was the fifth son of Azhi Dahaka's litter of beasts, sired from the womb of the great serpent Echidna. After he had found him lost in the ninth circle due to a quarrel that he deemed unsatisfactory, tension had sprouted between him and the family of inu-youkai which had never fully settled even in the countless millennia after Demogorgon's banishment.

"Ghastly business that was, I'm fortunate to have my hide intact after Azhi Dahaka-sama set his sword against me," Inuyasha mused, trailing his hand to Kilala's belly and rubbing her until she turned over in his lap. "I was just a weak thing back then, only dark-souled at the most."

"I had liked you better at that age, I think."

Izayoi appeared from the origin of the sulfurous air and landed gently atop a chair directly across from her son, crossing her legs with a small smile. Inuyasha found himself pinned under his mother's affection and let a small smirk sneak up on his own features, trying desperately to hide it by turning his head towards the morbid scenery below. "I couldn't bear my own presence all those years ago," he sighed, finding interest as a band of humans crawling across the blackened expanse, hurling themselves into the magma to escape their damnation. "Fools," Inuyasha muttered, alerting Izayoi and Kilala to the spectacle as well. "Heaven will not grant atonement when they commit cowardice by such actions."

Silence hung uneasily in the air as his words dissipated in the scorching atmosphere, creating an awkward gap between mother and son. "…You're sure that you wish to go to Earth today?" The black Inu-youkai felt stricken with pain, pierced through his decayed heart by Izayoi's pleading eyes. "Yes mother, I'm certain that merit will come from a trip to the surface world." He could sense his breath draining along with her sigh, finding mild solace in stroking Kilala's fur. If Inuyasha had known the word, he would've declared without a doubt that he loved his mother but unfortunately emotion was as alien to him as pacifism.

"You realize that your reputation will send a thousand seraphs to your neck if you so much as set foot outside of Hell," Izayoi whispered in a foreboding tone, reaching across the distance between them to flick Kilala's ear playfully. Inuyasha clasped Tetsusaiga's hilt with his left hand at the thought of fighting so many of the highest order of the angelic hierarchy. "It seems that I gave you an incentive instead of a hindrance," his mother stated dryly. "Very well then, do what you will without dwelling on my concern," she sighed once more, blinking a jeweled goblet into her hand from the floor below.

"So what has you seeking shelter in my company," Inuyasha inquired slyly, stone-faced in expectance of a suitable answer. Izayoi sipped steadily on her darkened wine and plucked Kilala from her son, placing her purring form to her own lap. "Kagura-chan's father had taken control of the guests downstairs and means to roast the corpse of Beelzebub for mass consumption," she spat distastefully, nodding in agreement to her son's grimace. "And he had asked you to join?"

"Indeed but I had escaped to your company while your father and brother's mother have found themselves in a less fortunate situation."

"So they must gorge upon the fly?"

"I'm afraid neither will know my lips for the next decade."

Inuyasha chuckled lightly, easing down into a comfortable discussion with his mother and her strange attraction between both genders. "What of Sesshoumaru, will he not partake as well?" He asked in a voice laden with sophisticated humor, tapping his claws elegantly atop his armrest. "No, he had fled with Kagura to some remote corner of the castle to protect his tongue." Mother and son shared a small laugh before raising themselves from their chair and proceeding downstairs, closely followed by Kilala. They engaged in idle chatter as they descended the central staircase to the grand court in the main entrance of the compound where a fire pit blazed around six curled, charred legs. Beelzebub's remains had been thoroughly defaced by the fangs of a thousand demons, standing now as nothing more but inedible scraps of bone.

"Putrid," Inuyasha hissed in revulsion, steering his mother away from the sent of cooked insect. "Maybe I should have spared Rasetsu so that he could have done away with that cretin; arrogant fool is a spider youkai after all."

"If only your sarcasm didn't flow as freely as blood, Inuyasha. You might have actually fooled me into believing you to be merciful."

"Bah."

Izayoi stopped him at the far end of the room and wearily leaned against the wall, slumping lazily in a manner that any lady with any semblance of nobility would have been frowned upon harshly if spotted.

"And here it is that I discover myself a few million years later, trading ambrosia and golden apples for a rotting fly."

Inuyasha shot his mother a cold frown that froze her words into empty syllables, remembering just how much he despised her divine ancestry. She often blamed herself for his glacial isolation, cursing herself for once ever possessing feathered wings on her back. It only deepened her guilt when her son said nothing to calm her as she lamented, causing her to take every scrap of it as the undisputed truth. But it was not so, Inuyasha could never bring himself to despise any aspect of his mother. He accepted that she didn't kill, ate only cooked meat, and even refused to watch any act of murder no matter how modest because she was what captivated him the most. Izayoi was to her son everything he could never be, pure even with the violet stripes of an inu-youkai staining her cheeks. Pure even though she was at the core of her black heart, a demonic beast with eyes of fire and fangs as sharp as her wit. He had the duty of serving under her as a faithful son and he adhered to his charge without neither gripe nor whispered curse.

"Inuyasha…I apologize, I know how you detest my…"

"Mother…"

Izayoi silenced herself at the unnerving benevolence in his voice, shifting her robes about in need of distraction.

"Never should a man's mother speak to him with fear stinging her voice unless he seeks the most dreaded pain he could ever hope to conjure. My hands have stolen the breath of countless servants of Heaven and never shall an ounce of their flesh harbor an ill will towards you." Inuyasha watched as his mother stood with mouth agape and could've sworn to witnessing tears had the winds of Hell not acted as a thief and taken them before being shed. Izayoi was struck speechless, she had never thought possible that someone with a mind as black as her son's could be capable of formulating such comforting words. She reached up slowly to cup his hardened face and hugged him briefly, letting it go unspoken of how much he really meant to her.

They broke almost as swiftly as they had joined but the action had not gone unnoticed by the devil of the southwest winds. Pazuzu strode up to them noiselessly, needle-like teeth forming a rotted smile as every manner of pestilence seeped outwards from his throat. The dual sets of reptilian wings on his back lay folded and dormant while his black skin took on a lustrous sheen in the morning eclipse.

"My such a display of compassion from this man who bears not a smile in the hour of victory might lead one to claim an Oedipal relationship," he quipped humorously, ducking agilely to avoid a subsonic fist rocketing towards his face, courtesy of the black-souled youkai. Izayoi on the other hand had grown accustomed to her brother-in-law's crude jokes, knowing full well that they all originated in the legion of succubi that tied into his family. Inuyasha smoothed his robes over and crossed his arms, draining every hint of mixed emotion from his features instantly. "Uncle, would you name yourself," he cooed maliciously, making frost of the raining ashes around him with his icy tone. Pazuzu relaxed into a mirroring pose and looked over his nephew-in-law with a hint of amusement, knowing full well that if he were to answer that he would undoubtedly set himself up for some venomous retort.

"I am Pazuzu, dark angel of the fatal winds. Eldest son of Set the destroyer and Tiamat the earth mother, scourge of the desert wastelands which haunts the gods with the shadow of pandemic." The black-skinned demon boasted haughtily, taking immense pride in his lengthy title. He waited a moment and sighed heavily when he received only two pairs of raised eyebrows in recognition. "Indeed you are, uncle," Inuyasha countered smoothly, examining his claws with disinterest before moving them to pet Kilala who had hopped aboard his shoulder. "Make jests at sacrifice to your standing for they serve only to lower you in my eyes." Izayoi sighed and shook her head while her brother-in-law stroked his head in confusion, not entirely sure whether he had been threatened or insulted.

_No longer is he but the child brother of my daughter's mate. Deteriorating into blackness and bathing regularly in blood, Inuyasha has long since lost his cause. He is the embodiment of Hell itself, carrying out the homeland's wishes with regard to neither independent thought nor sword. A shell of a man who chills the air with his intent is not a living being but a breathing weapon of destruction. This may be the internal musings of an elder demon but I fear that one day the weight of his very skin will be sufficient enough to crush the emptiness within him. _

"Save your servant who trusts in you."

The irony of a youkai reciting a quote from the bible struck Pazuzu violently from his thoughts and sent him plummeting downwards into full attentiveness. "What say you?" He inquired in bewilderment, meeting Izayoi's gaze and simultaneously shrugging his shoulders along with her. "A guard in your service had not known my identity last night when screening me at his post, Amon I believe. His insolence I had linked to a life lived in the southern plains and away from my family; I leave it to you for repair."

Pazuzu kept his scrutinizing gaze on his nephew, unwavering at the bizarre nature of his request and sealed his private thoughts hidden from plain view. The demon of the southwest wind broke his eyes away from the two before him and surveyed the surrounding guests, taking comfort away from the black presence that held his words hostage. "Very well then," he muttered dismissively, motioning to leave and join Kagura who had just appeared atop a nearby staircase. Inuyasha made slits of his eyes towards his uncle's back but held his tongue with practiced restraint. However dissatisfied he may have been, making a conflict out of a meager quarrel against a daiyoukai wouldn't have gone over well with the masses.

Soon after he had stained his face with a scowl laden with contempt did Izayoi join her two mates by a distant pavilion as they downed gallons of wine into their throats in a desperate attempt to rid themselves from the defining taste of Beelzebub's carcass. Inuyasha watched her back become smaller and smaller until she met his father and Akkiyoru, erupting into high laugh at their expense while they looked on with disdain. He let a gentle sigh escape his lungs with little effort and turned abruptly when a familiar youki made itself known behind him.

"So you too have managed to escape torment by isolation," Sesshoumaru murmured in a bored tone, idly tracing the magenta stripes on his left arm. "Not that you had been doing anything far from the norm, little brother." Inuyasha shot his brother a cocked eyebrow that went easily ignored as he called his mate over from her parents, breaking the crowd of four sets of black wings. Lilith looked on with mild curiosity as her daughter abandoned her company, stroking her serpent familiar inattentively while she joined the two inu-youkai.

The succubus hummed lightly to herself, strolling wistfully past the brothers to a small circle of chairs where she tossed all other demons occupying the furniture well into the distance before gesturing for the others to sit down with her. Sesshoumaru upturned the corner of his mouth in amusement and strode across the marble floors to his mate as Inuyasha followed silently behind; sitting rigidly in an armchair while the couple shared a loveseat. "So how has this fine day been treating you, Inuyasha?" Kagura chimed in serpentine mischief, stifling a giggle at her brother-in-laws suspicion once the words had reached his ears. "I am well, sister. Though any day spent in my homeland would elicit an identical response, what brings your inquiry?"

Kagura sat back against the embroidered cushions with a heavy sigh, shaking her head at just how lacking Inuyasha was in social skills. "Must you always be so restless? I ask for you to only once humor me with a kind response, I know you adore the plains of Hell as if it were a lover's touch but such things shouldn't keep me from your welfare." With that said, Inuyasha grudgingly melted into his chair with comedic unease still very much visible on his person. Things like this always occurred after settling from wartime; he became anxious and easily excitable, following everyone and everything in the vague promise of a fight. In times like this, he often went to the eastern plains where combat was guaranteed, spending years at a time in Hell's darkest quadrant to quell his stress.

Still, when it came down to it, the demonic wind sorceress only added to his discomfort with the untrustworthy personality she had inherited as a succubus. "May I only sit in a still ambience after you tell me what thoughts you've guarded," Inuyasha purred emotionlessly, mimicking Kilala as she jumped from his shoulder and into his lap. In addition to being a warrior of the highest caliber, he had developed several other unique skills over the millions of years that he had spent training alone, advanced telepathy being one of them. Kagura willed a goblet of wine from the far end of the room and into her hands, successfully hiding her scowl upon her brother's discovery.

"Well…" she began, providing an air of tension by breaking off to sip her blackened tonic. "Two things, really and only minor with little need to be upset. Sesshoumaru and I had wagered last night at the event of your performance or lack thereof." The pair snickered with only miniscule restraint, prompting Inuyasha to glare at them with chiding eyes. "Have you grown so weary of each other that you must turn to me for your source of entertainment?" He growled viciously, disgusted that they would even have the audacity to monitor his rare sexual encounters. Inuyasha began drumming his claws on his knee in agitation, refusing to meet the mirth in the eyes of his brother and sister.

_If she hadn't erected such an obvious cloud over that memory then I would have never discovered this injustice, it would seem that sister wished for me to know humiliation._

After nearly a minute of solitary fury, the younger inu-youkai snapped his gaze towards Sesshoumaru who immediately cast aside his humor and mirrored the cold stare. "You can at least offer some reconciliation by telling me you came out as the winner," Inuyasha said in a tone that would only accept a single answer, sighing painfully when Kagura took on a smug expression. "My apologies, little brother but know that I had bet in your favor."

"How's that?"

"I had wagered her death after a full sixty seconds while Kagura seemed a bit more confident in your lethality and took a lower stand."

Inuyasha sank into his armchair in a slouching posture, tired already of the peacetime lifestyle. "What did you gain, sister dearest?" He mumbled in disinterest, hoping she hadn't made a fool of his brother. "Oh," Kagura began slyly, causing both brothers to wince for different reasons. "I didn't win anything but Sesshoumaru lost considerably. We had wagered on who would be able to go clean out the city while the loser stayed here to act as your guide."

"Guide?"

"Yes, Inuyasha. You've been so enthralled with the war that you failed to discover the labyrinthine structure of barriers around the Earth."

Now Sesshoumaru pulled his own drink over from the expanse of the lavish chamber and drank deeply, mourning for his loss. The daiyoukai were to go down towards the walled city and state their claim over the land, justifying the murder of anyone who objected. It had surprised him at first when Inuyasha opted not to join but soon he had learned from Lilith that he was to journey to the mortal realm on an observatory mission. Even when faced with his greatest pleasure, he had declined so that he could serve his family with unmatched dedication.

"So you know of my schedule then, do you?" Inuyasha murmured, sitting upright and placing his head on his fist in a display of attentiveness. "So why is it that I need a guide to bypass the safeguard?" He watched as the couple exchanged knowing expressions and blinked several documents into their hands in preparation for a briefing.

"Despite your influenced beliefs, little brother. Kagura and I did not spend Hell's short moon entirely on gambling and in each other's arms but doing quite a bit of research for you," Sesshoumaru cooed, handing his younger brother a host of organized papers and beginning to highlight the most important aspects as he roved over them at unnatural speed. "The safeguard bulkhead as the angels have named it, is an insurmountable barrier that seals the human world from any physical presence that attempts to pierce its walls. However, this is easily bypassed when…"

"Possession," Inuyasha concluded, mentally making a copy of the papers and sending them back to his room in the same area as the battle records he had received the previous day. "Precisely," Sesshoumaru stated blandly, annoyed at his brother's rude interruption. "Only souls of the most powerful class can penetrate the wall and if one as black and ancient as yours can't pass then we might be faced with impossibility." The younger inu-youkai rubbed his chin pensively as the two mates sipped heavily upon their goblets, already formulating countless strategies to use such a barrier to his advantage.

"Has anyone successfully bypassed the bulkhead since its creation?"

"Father has," Kagura chimed, boasting her claim proudly towards the two cocked eyebrows directed towards her. "He's gone a number of times for research; you know how he is, always having to investigate every single movement the angels make." Sesshoumaru nodded slowly and idly rubbed the thick leathery interiors of her wings, making her cheeks pinken slightly at his touch. "Indeed he has, Pazuzu-sama would often tell me stories of mortal achievement after months at battle. Always had he used his mate as a guide to monitor the presence of angels and preserve his body while his soul roamed the mid-realm."

Inuyasha nodded in understanding, petting Kilala gently in his lap before hefting her atop his shoulder and standing abruptly. "Wait," Kagura called softly, holding another small stack of documents in her hands which he took without question and began reading them aloud.

"Michael…forty-two, Uzziel…seventy-six, Raphael…twenty-six, Gabriel…one thousand four hundred and eighty eight…sister what is this?" He asked in bewilderment, flipping through the stack of papers to find that they were all lined with names and numbers, some of which he instantly recognized. "Father also found that higher-ranking angels are often opening up the safeguard to mingle amongst humans in disguise. We had thought them to create it to keep warfare away from their precious Earth but now we're not so certain of such a simple deduction. Those are how many times each has visited, most are seraphs with a few archangels as well," the greater succubus stated pointedly, scratching Kilala behind her ears as she explained.

Sesshoumaru rose from his seat as well and directed the others to a small corridor where they found their parents waiting eagerly, anxious to get on with the day's events. The small groups met up with one another midway down the narrow hallway and exchanged casual greetings, fully armored and prepared for secondary conquest upon finishing their eight thousand year long war. "General," Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru uttered simultaneously, forming into a low bow before their father. Strong hands gripped both their shoulders and gently nudged them upwards, excusing formality for a later date.

The Inu no Taisho nodded warmly to his sons and gestured for Kagura to join his side, suppressing a laugh as Sesshoumaru shot her a jealous glare. "We'll have none of that now. You two are doing us a generous favor while we clear the city of vermin; hold no ill will for a man with an executioner's profession." Inuyasha scoffed inaudibly, following the six in front of him while his brother took equal strides alongside him. They walked past the few remaining guests from the last evening, taking in a multitude of bows and praise until reaching the front gates.

Winding brimstone pathways, cleaved into obscure patterns by trails of magma led downwards into their new city. A hive for Beelzebub's loyalists and criminals who had fled from the other quadrants to seek shelter in the lawless area of the western plains, still the city harbored sophisticated architecture and a surprisingly modern industriousness. This prompted the new daiyoukai, aided by their allies from the south to clear out the city's disease and rebuild it into a capital worthy of their stature as well as establishing a firm rule in the process without appearing oppressive. Even in Hell where hate was prevalent, it was extremely beneficiary to be appreciated by the common people.

A large iron gate loomed over the entrance to the castle, adorned with fearsome sculptures of various demons and mortared by the bones of what looked to be angel wings. The Inu no Taisho stepped forward and undid the maze of complex locking mechanisms, thrusting open the gate which in turn disabled the barrier around the entire compound that acted to ward off flying creatures who could easily bypass the spiked bars of the outer walls. His twin moko-moko flapped loosely in the scorching winds as he turned to face the others and clasped his sword, Tenseiga in a firm grip on his obi. The weapon served to immediately send any opposing creature to the realm of nonexistence, harboring both black and white energy that neutralized any immortal it pierced into oblivion.

All those that were to purify the city below joined at his side and took one last look at the two inu-youkai that bore an equally cold expression. Upon seeing her mate with this striking similarity to his distanced brother, Kagura hiked up the inclined terrain and without regard to those around her, assaulted his mouth with her tongue and left his features much softer while she waved goodbye. Sesshoumaru eyes took on their usual gloss after sharing the brief moment and nodded his farewells, taking his gaze away from Inuyasha who merely scowled at the backs of the descending demons.

"What has you so perturbed, little brother," he asked without any hint of enthusiasm directed towards an answer. "I should be the one with downcast lips, not you. Had you not wished to leave absent from today's activities?" Inuyasha left the question in the air and began retreating backwards towards the castle, mulling over his own confusing actions. Sesshoumaru waited patiently at his side, he knew persistence was pointless when it came to his brother, he could easily shut any pursuer from conversation by turning his back and morphing into a stone-faced shell of a youkai.

"Why is my mother attending this act of loyalist cleansing?" The younger inu-youkai queried modestly, increasing his pace in anxiousness to breach Earth's barriers. "She vows not to kill and abhors the sight of blood, why does she leave at the promise of her most offensive sight?" He cast his gaze over to Sesshoumaru and frowned when a pensive expression never crossed his face which meant that either he didn't consider the question or already knew the answer. "Mistress Izayoi-sama goes to extend a benign rule amidst the bloodshed, appearing to the populace as a physical manifestation of our olive branch."

"You lie," Inuyasha snarled, catching Sesshoumaru by surprise at his ferocity. "Demons respect authority that yields promise of peace forged by blood and iron, not mother's pacifist ideals." The elder inu-youkai sighed and rubbed his forehead at the threat of an oncoming headache, dreading his brother's potential to see through any individual regardless of how adept at hiding their thoughts and emotions. "Very well…she goes because if she hadn't, Izayoi-sama would be here acting as your guide."

"What aspect of that occupation does she dislike?"

"Mistress Izayoi-sama seems to think that less murder would be committed in a city populated by nearly a billion demons than your trip to Earth," Sesshoumaru muttered sympathetically, scoffing aloud and breaking into a light jog to keep up with his younger brother's ever increasing speed.

Inuyasha mentally reeled at his words, disgusted more towards himself than at his mother and growing furious at finding himself unable to shake the feeling of incompetence as a son.

_Mother's thoughts aren't misplaced but still I wish she had had the will to confess these things to me so that I might know my own faults. _

He blasted through the main entry of the castle and sent servants and guests alike diving for cover as the sound of the door slamming into the stone walls reverberated like a gunshot throughout the large chamber. Stretching out his right index finger to its full length, he shot condensed waves of kinetic energy outwards to anyone that hadn't cleared a path for him as he proceeded up the stairs, cutting clean cylindrical holes through their skulls. The black mist of departing souls filled the castle as Inuyasha continued his senseless slaughter all the way to his room, completely lost in angered bloodlust whilst Sesshoumaru was doing the best he could to follow him and simultaneously check the bodies to see if he had killed anyone of importance.

Letting loose an exasperated sigh and becoming more and more agitated by the vacuums in the air that littered the hallways, remnants of Inuyasha's attacks and sucking him into awkward positions as atmosphere rushed to fill the gaps in the ambience. He repeatedly stumbled over lobotomized corpses until reaching the end of the trail with another weary sigh and rested his hand on the door only to find it locked. "Humorous," he growled, enveloping the lock with unnatural heat, even for Hell and liquefied the metal to the point of evaporation and grudgingly pushed the door open.

Sesshoumaru looked around the room and found his brother crouched atop his bed with one leg extended far outwards to the end of the mattress while the other lay bent in a position like he had just landed from a high fall. A black haze glossed over his eyes with singular red halos setting his irises ablaze in rancor, every breath escaping his lungs as an animalistic hiss. The elder inu-youkai knew better than to confront Inuyasha when he was in such a state but they had a job to do and he knew how to navigate around his malicious nature. More importantly, he also knew that he hadn't merely lost himself to rage at his mother's fear of him but was rather given one straw too many after the uneasiness of the peacetime lifestyle dominated his mind.

Caught in a whirlwind created by a mix of youki and black aura, Sesshoumaru began shifting his stance every so often to dodge miscellaneous items while closing the distance to the bed. Kilala, who had been roughly shed from her master's shoulder before his stint of a rampage, landed in her transformed body on the veranda outside and stood between the threshold entering the bedroom, eying Inuyasha as abysmal energy crackled like lightning around his frame. Upon reaching the bed, his older brother eased himself down atop the mattress, completely unfazed by the open display of power that in all his years ahead of him had never been able to reach.

He couldn't tell by looking but he knew that his pupils had followed him all the way over and rested squarely on his own. Sesshoumaru stroked his moko-moko idly, creating the illusion that he wasn't trying his damnedest to keep himself from buckling under the massive pressure of his younger brother's black aura. "Away with it," he snapped commandingly, not exactly sure what his next move would be if Inuyasha failed to respond to verbal communication. Luckily for him, the youki half of the maelstrom subsided and left the younger inu-youkai with a pair of glossed over blackened eyes uninhibited by crimson circlets. Lost in the emptiness behind his sclera, Sesshoumaru found himself distracted from his objective and couldn't help but pitying his younger brother.

_He hasn't yet realized all that he's sacrificed to achieve this level of corruption, I was born several million years before him and yet he has already far surpassed me in many ways. Even father might find himself contended within a few millennia, put to shame by the strength of his own son. Inuyasha shouldn't be a void of wickedness at his age. So many of life's experiences have been disregarded in his pursuit of power, something I had halted for myself quite some time ago at such a realization. _

The cyclone slowed considerably, allowing dappled light from the eclipsed sun to shine through the shrouded room in obstructed rays of a convoluted spectrum. However, Inuyasha's eyes retained their onyx sheen and his black stripes were contorted into jagged designs. He sat upright at the edge of his bed, easing next to his brother and openly displaying that he had regained control over his altered mentality. "I'll keep myself in this state for some time, I've learned from experience that withdrawing to quickly would only cause me to revert back into insanity within the hour," Inuyasha stated dryly, rising slowly and directing broken vases back atop their native overturned pillars and repairing them to a time when they had not known even the wear of Hell's searing winds. Unfurling the tapestries and resetting every other ornate piece of décor about his bedchamber, he motioned towards the door with a gesture towards his elder brother after finishing.

They proceeded wordlessly, coursing through a labyrinth of corridors and stairways, Sesshoumaru leading the way once Inuyasha recalled that he had no idea where they were headed. Climbing ever upwards into the highest floors of the European modeled castle and ascending to areas of the structure uninhabited by flaunting guests, the two inu-youkai approached a spiral staircase leading to the apex of one of the tall spires protruding from the compound's stone roof. At the top awaited a small circular chamber, sparsely furnished with only a table with papers strewn over the polished surface and a single chair that lay reclined in a low angle.

Arched windows completed the symmetry of the marbled atrium, overlooking the ashen rain that fell from Hell's vermillion clouds. Inuyasha set his hands loosely on the tanned leather of lone article of furniture, stroking it with his thumbs as Kilala made herself known with a mew and looked up to Sesshoumaru who gave her a slight shake of his head. She gazed downcast and hopped atop the adjacent table to examine the host of documents.

"This is where my second father has prepared for your departure, he has instructed me on all manner of procedures to ready you for bypassing the safeguard bulkhead," Sesshoumaru informed his sibling, gliding across the floor to meet his brother next to the chair as he took the hint and sat down silently in hesitant obedience to the foreign routine. Sesshoumaru gave him a curt nod once he was situated and headed over towards the table, lifting up Kilala's paw to retrieve a couple of papers beneath. He held out his hand and produced a luminescent grey orb that floated dully a few inches from his fingers. "Is such a thing truly necessary," Inuyasha inquired, keeping his eyes sternly fixated to the domed ceiling.

Informational insemination is a common ability shared by the highest ranking demons and angels, allowing them to instantly attain nearly any fabric of knowledge willingly given from the minds of other immortals.

"Indeed it is, little brother. A gift from Pazuzu-dono to aid both of us in what may yet to prove a long endeavor. This contains every scrap of information regarding human advancement that has not already been imparted to you through other sources," Sesshoumaru explained, dropping the orb into Inuyasha's forehead and triggering the usual brief seizure that accompanied the inheritance of such a vast array of knowledge. "You had been granted only limited Greco-Roman culture in addition to moderate Japanese; through this you've missed many cultural and technological evolutions."

Inuyasha sat upright and shook his head to clear away the mild pain that throbbed in the interior of his skull, nearly overwhelmed by the wealth of education he'd just acquired. "It would seem that humans have changed drastically since the introduction of the barriers," he muttered in amazement, roaming over the various inventions and achievements of the once troglodytic race. "I was impressed as well," Sesshoumaru commented, placing his hand on his brother's chest and easing back down onto the chair. "Now as I understand it, your mission is to examine the effectiveness of the Shinto pantheon. At this first departure, I recommend you to be as subtle as you can so that we can use this run as an example for a time when we might take a voyage into the mortal realm."

"I know that stealth isn't your particular forte but I promise that the next insertion will have much, much less restrictions, is this acceptable?" Inuyasha nodded and prepared his soul to be removed from his body, prompting black vapor to froth at his mouth. Sesshoumaru stared at his brother's still-corrupted eyes and sighed heavily. "If you enter as you are now, you'll be much more conspicuous than if you were to bear our father's eyes instead of your own." Inuyasha twitched his lips into a sneer, allowing elongated fangs to poke outwards until his face was dominated by a deep frown. "I'm incapable to do so," he hissed in annoyance. "Such things happen after war."

Sesshoumaru held up his hand to cease his sibling's cryptic self-loathing, opening up a private telepathic channel and blinking a chair next to him in final preparation to get underway with the breach. Inuyasha drained his soul outwards from every orifice in his face until a thick black mist blotted out every speck of light that attempted to enter through the arched windows. He watched through clouded vision as his elder brother raised his hand to his mouth to stifle a cough as he began to choke on the tainted smog. "Very well then, let's get on with it," he stated in a tone that signaled commencement, wheezing slightly.

He drew a circle in the air with his forefinger, cutting the atmosphere with arcane magic and knocking out the space in the air with a gentle push, revealing billions of stars and intricate cosmic patterns that emphasized a small blue planet further downwards. The black soul surged through the portal and dived downwards until the scent of ozone reached his senses, overlaid by the recent odor of angels. Inuyasha slid to a halt as a barrier at least several miles thick threatened to block him from the Earth's surface.

"_No need for subtlety at this stage, little brother. Do whatever is necessary to pierce the barrier."_

Inuyasha flared up his black aura and immediately witnessed the safeguard bulkhead waver under only a demonstration without physical contact.

"_Insulting for angels to think that this would impede me in the slightest."_

"_Nonsense, I imagine that this also serves as a warning bell to the gods."_

The black soul broke into a swift descent and carved a swathe into the barriers, bypassing nearly every nature of light and white energy before entering oxygen-filled atmosphere. Inuyasha burned through clouds, leaving dark streaks as he proceeded towards a pacific archipelago and eventually finding himself in a large city on the eastern coast.

"_I'll have your body standing by for transport the moment any significant divine presence makes itself known and remember, Kagura had given you a secondary objective."_

"_Yes, I recall that I was charged to find why nearly every greater angel has set foot on Earth over a dozen times in the last eight millennia."_

He soared over trees and skyscrapers alike until reaching a high-end residential district, sifting through the various human occupants until selecting the most favorable.

"_I require a suitable body if I am to achieve the maximum performance, this one will do nicely."_

**

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Author's Note:

The next chapter for Harvest children will be uploaded by the end of Monday, sorry for the wait, I have good reasons.


	4. Heaven's Unusual Emissary

Across the expanse of Tokyo's urban landscape, a black cloud glided leisurely through the palette of mixed orange and purple pigments emitted by dawn's steadily rising sun, remaining unseen by the civilians below. Weaving in between skyscrapers and traffic lights, it lowered itself to the street where the early morning rush hour had only just begun. Dematerializing into particles to avoid taking the body of an unsuspecting driver, the vapor departed into a suburban atmosphere to scan the homes for anyone of acceptable physical quality.

Inuyasha fazed through several walls of a moderately wealthy looking home and traced the life energies to a couple sleeping happily in their bed, relishing their peace before oozing into the male. Motor functions streamed in rapidly for the inu-youkai along with unclouded vision and all normal senses. The mortal body was a good fit and it was simple enough to overtake and banish the mind of an unconscious human. Still, his black aura hadn't dissipated any during the short flight and angels were always fast to act on a breach despite which pantheon they served under.

"_Well done, little brother. Certainly a swift procedure, is it not?"_

"_Indeed but nowhere near as satisfying as the days when we used to break down Heaven's gates in the dead of night to slay as many angels as we could find while retaining our stealth."_

"_Hmph, the realm of the gods is not so easily overtaken anymore. We were younger then and so were their minds, no longer can a youkai set foot in that vile place without loosing his head upon entry."_

The brothers' argument was quickly dissolved as the woman next to Inuyasha woke from her rest and slid her arm lovingly over his chest. She sighed contently and moved her body into his, much to the inu-youkai's disgust. He quickly leapt away from her and watched as the woman looked up in surprise, shrieking like mad when she discovered her lover to have adorned a set of blackened eyes. Inuyasha sneered in vexation at the offending noise, snarling viciously when he found no ears atop his head to flatten in an attempt to dull the incessant screaming. A slender finger unfurled into its full length and eventually found itself on the woman's forehead, immediately quieting her and turning her mind into a blank slate.

She fell dumbly against the bed as saliva steadily began to pool in the interior of her mouth and spill outwards onto the bedding. Inuyasha watched her pitifully for a moment before exiting the quaint bedroom in favor of a living area with a small kitchen linked to the side for convenience. He took in the layout of the house instantly, mentally engaging in cartography to provide simple knowledge of the floor plans. Making his way idly over to the kitchen, Inuyasha approached a magnetic knife rack and chose what looked to be a rather sharp blade from the wide selection.

He made his way back to the bedroom and opened the woman's mind up for suggestion, ensuring that she would comply with the first statement that was next spoken to her.

"Why don't you try peeling of your face?"

A large cooking knife fell against the mattress with a feathery sound as the comforter beneath it deflated slightly. The woman snapped out of her stupor the moment the words reached her brain, grabbing the handle and without hesitation, pierced herself through the upper lip and began sawing away at the sensitive flesh. Inuyasha kept his eyes fixed coldly upon the gruesome spectacle as he eased himself down atop a wicker armchair in the corner of the room for what looked to be a very long show.

"_You're rather cruel, little brother."_

"_Nonsense, she feels neither pain nor any genre of suffering within her brain's physical capacity…some would call me generous while you chose cruel."_

The lack of pain which lead to an absence of shock kept the woman alive far past the area where normal humans would simply black out from the excruciation; the decreased heart rate from the mindless state only made her bleed out at an agonizing pace. She removed her eyes and left them dangling from the optic nerve for several minutes while she carved out her cheeks, leaving her mouth much wider than usual. Her nose came next, followed by nearly every scrap of skin before the eyes were cut and the face left fleshless. The stark whiteness of her teeth, visible to the gum without the cover of lips contrasted the mass of gore in a horrible scene of dehumanizing sadism.

Left with nothing more to do after completing her objective, she sat upright on the bed and folded her hands neatly in her lap. Inuyasha watched emotionlessly for several minutes before the mutilated woman fell limply to the floor, collapsed in a heap on the back of death's wings. The inu-youkai rose wordlessly from his seat in the darkened corner and proceeded over to the corpse, kicking it over unceremoniously. He swiped his finger across the bloodied head and brought it up to his waiting tongue, licking the digit sparingly. Inuyasha spit the solution straight from his mouth almost as soon as it entered, gazing distastefully towards the spot where it landed.

_Eight thousand years of evolution and they still carry the flavor of apes. _

Shuffling across the now-slick floors to the adjacent dresser, Inuyasha fumbled through the topside contents until he found what he was looking for. An expensive leather wallet rested squarely in his hand before it fell open, revealing its contents to the intrusive youkai. However, avoiding the title of a common thief, he merely looked at the identification and snapped closed before throwing it casually over his shoulder.

"Hajime Shimekiri…good enough."

Inuyasha motioned to exit the room before catching himself in a nearby mirror, meeting the stare of a black-eyed human beyond the polished glass. "Hmph, unacceptable." Drawn back once again to the wood-stained vanity, he plucked a pair of sunglasses from the surface and fixed them rigidly to his mortal ears. The inu-youkai examined himself once more, exiting the room and descending a small staircase once viewing his appearance to be satisfactory.

"_What will you do now?"_

"…_I haven't yet thought of it, perhaps engage in some leisurely activities before the angels arrive to drive me out of this borrowed vessel."_

"_I've never taken you for a recreational sort."_

"_Call it what you will, indirectly slaughtering humans is a notable pastime."_

Simply launching the front door off its hinges with an absent-minded fling of his palm, Inuyasha strode calmly out to the driveway while concerned suburbanites ran from their stoops and over to their neighbor's home where the aftermath of the youkai's previous action tore through the upper level. A blue mustang convertible sat in the open garage, seemingly new by the looks of it or extremely well cared for.

_Casual transport would be the more educated choice…_

The community now turned their attention away from the vandalized home to the origin of the flying door and raced up to confront the disguised inu-youkai. Effectively barred from his automobile, Inuyasha frowned heavily at the mass of citizens as the myriad closed in on him with a staggering amount of jumbled inquiries. Annoyance quickly turned into anger as the coalition of neighbors refused to recede, prompting the possessed Hajime Shimekiri to exhale sharply and hold his breath. The neighborhood's inhabitants stood in confusion for several moments before clasping their throats and running about as if they were livestock facing the chopping block upon discovering the air to be stolen from their lungs without hope of reentry.

Once the last of the bloated, blue-faced civilians fell to be one with the pavement of the driveway, Inuyasha breathed a relieved sigh and entered the garage. The aqua colored convertible stood gleaming in the morning light, reflecting the sun perfectly with it's impeccably shined surface, devoid of any noticeable soap spots or blemishes. "Not quite my preference," the inu-youkai stated blandly, creating a small laceration across his thumb with his forefinger and drawing a single drop of black blood. He flicked the caustic liquid onto the chassis and watched as it spread throughout the entire vehicle, coating the bright placid blue in a dismal color.

"Acceptable…"

After hopping into the back seat of the tinted automobile, Inuyasha mentally willed the ignition to start and sat back as the mustang roared to life with a low rumble. Subconsciously programming a path into the car's mechanical memory with another show of arcane magick, he loosened his position into one of comfort as the vehicle rolled without a proper driver down the driveway and turned onto the street after flattening the large number of suffocated corpses under its weight. It continued by itself, passing fellow automobiles and halting its motion when appropriate and in the same time, turning quite a few heads as the phantom chauffeur continued its predestined path onto the highway.

_This infernal machine is so bloody laggard. _

On the freeway, the black mustang engaged in a cruise control of sorts, sidling next to several other vehicles and maintaining their speed with every new acceleration.

"_Enjoying ourselves, are we?"_

"_Quite, now that I've reached my destination. I hope you'll watch with great enthusiasm as I scorch these humans well into the afterlife."_

Inuyasha sharpened his gaze towards the car nearest him and mentally infiltrated the engine, watching as the pistons moved rhythmically and ignited the oil to be converted into energy. Using this singular spark, he expanded the heat until it engulfed the underbelly of the entire machine and detonated the gas tanks, causing the unfortunate commuters to be consumed in a pillar of crimson flame. The automobiles sudden combustion was sounded off by a flurry of horns and shouts as the burning metallic carcass slid along the asphalt at a pitifully sluggish rate. Several drivers swerved into the median and others into the guardrail while less fortunate ones slammed into each other at a speed that guaranteed mortal demise.

The highway soon erupted into pandemonium as the inu-youkai sent wave after wave of exploding automobiles into oblivion, watching in cold amusement as they careened into oncoming traffic, resulting in even more destruction. Charred bodies littered the roadside as they were ejected like ragdolls through the windshields of their cars, most bearing at least a single set of tracks over their burnt flesh where another kindled vehicle rolled over them.

"_Wasn't this operation originally about stealth?"_

"_My power is masked by this human which in turn causes these deaths to appear as accidents in the eyes of an angel. The single flaw is my black aura which should lure them to my location within the hour."_

"Hmph, although a praiseworthy presentation, this show is becoming quite repetitive," Inuyasha stated arrogantly, tipping the steering wheel telekinetically to swerve into a miraculously surviving driver lying battered in the breakdown lane, effectively crushing his skull into a two-dimensional stain on the pavement. "Fleeting…perhaps another form of secular diversion." The inu-youkai searched his recently acquired knowledge for any form of human entertainment until stumbling across the memories that contained the evolution of media. He mentally set his preferences for anything that would suit his tastes, immediately receiving a host of plastic cases splashing across his lap. "Music, huh? Father's court never provided me with anything of interest which leads me to seriously doubt that mortals could be capable of capturing my tastes."

He began sifting through the various discs before being immediately drawn to a single case near the bottom, flinging all others to the roadside while he examined the cover. The artwork consisted of only red and black hues, depicting a scene in which fallen angels had been cast into Hell whilst their ascended brethren hunted them viciously from above with downcast spears. Inuyasha moved his gaze from the strangely appropriate cover to the name of the band in the top-left corner, twisting his lips into a wry smirk as he read it aloud. "Lord Belial…so humans know of the northern king, do they now?" Inuyasha slammed the CD into the disk drive and sat back expectantly as it began to spin.

Heavily distorted metallic sounds blasted through the speaker, catching the inu-youkai by surprise at the raw anger behind them. They were intoxicatingly rhythmic and he soon found his foot tapping involuntarily against the empty seat in front of him, letting a blade-like fang protrude from the corner of his mouth in satisfaction. He was caught off guard once more as human voices filtered through the rapid percussion in tune to the stringed instruments. It was unlike anything he had ever heard, inhuman growling like that of a demon, laced with malice and spoken in a language he had only learned recently through Pazuzu's findings.

_Roaring with the sound of heavy thunder  
Moving with the extreme lust of death  
Spawned before the dawn of time  
In the shadows and the dark it dwells  
Pulsating cold blood in the ancient veins  
Pugnacious as never seen by man before_

_Malevolence is its only feelings and thoughts  
Tearing the souls and wings of all seraphim_

_Angelgrinder-Makes it's way through the winged legions from heaven  
Angelgrinder-Grinding its way trough the angel torso  
Angelgrinder-Ripping their wings and drinks the warm blood from their throat  
Angelgrinder-Split open their wormeaten skulls_

"_Inuyasha listen to me, you fool!"_

Sesshoumaru's words rebounded harshly off the corners of his mind, jarring his younger brother back into reality with a pained growl. Inuyasha shook the ringing from his brain and snapped forward at the presence in the air but couldn't react fast enough as the car immediately halted its destructive path, sending him sailing through the air. He landed hard on the asphalt, breaking dozens of bones as he continued to bounce across the freeway several times before skidding several yards across the open street, grinding flesh and bone alike from the mortal vessel.

Upon sliding to a stop without a hint of grace, Inuyasha immediately rolled over and attempted to leap to his feet, however the action merely resulted in several more bones dislodging in abstract directions with sickening cracks. He fell over backwards and spit the pooling blood from his throat in a futile attempt to rid himself of the taste as his right arm began twitching uncontrollably. The body had been completely mangled without hope of immediate restoration, lying brutally disfigured in the center of the road.

"_This Sesshoumaru had been calling you repeatedly…I'm sending your body as I tell you this. You don't seem to be in significant peril for the moment, however."_

Inuyasha stirred clumsily in his severely injured vessel, scanning the earlier presence with a keen mind's eye to analyze the immediate threat. There was only one energy signature which struck him as odd but yet he focused to it and examined the aura with calculating thoughts. It was thick with white energy, approaching slowly but without caution. Undoubtedly of divine origin, the sacred being showed little prowess in anything but potential to purify and that confused Inuyasha well into a new spectrum of bewilderment.

"_What is this?"_

A loud crash sounded next to him, disrupting his train of thought by scattering fragments of pavement about the-inu-youkai in a cloud of debris. The familiar tainted air of his black heart smoldered upwards from the deep crater as the celestial being stopped its advance abruptly at the commotion. Inuyasha quickly drained his soul from the battered human corpse and surged into his body, sparing no further time and bounding upwards from the wreckage to confront the mysterious opponent.

She was a woman looking to escape her late teenaged appearance, sporting wavy hair that dangled midway down her slender frame and took on an onyx sheen in the morning sun. A single pair of feathered wings adorned her back, retracted into a resting position. No sword, spear, or any identifiable weapon hung on her person, prompting Inuyasha to narrow his gaze at the angel at disgust. Meeting her platinum eyes and discovering hints of an azure blue nestled within the irises; he trailed his vision across her face and frowned slightly. Eventually, He brought his stare ever downwards across her hourglass figure and noted her flowing white robes.

They stood in silence for several tense moments as they looked over each other with a critical gaze, one set of eyes hardened with fury whilst the other set firmly in a state of uncertainty. Inuyasha broke his glare after what seemed like ages and scanned the now desolate highway with a highly perturbed expression staining his usual emotionless mask.

_They dare send me an angel that…looks like her?!_

His hand contracted into a heavy fist, shaking violently as his claws tore at his flesh and sent droplets of black blood onto the roadside. What was once a small outlet of appalled agitation turned into one of full blown rage as his black stripes grew jagged with hatred and the dark pigment in his eyes was interrupted by a pair of glowing crimson halos. Inuyasha blinked over to the stunned angel at supersonic speeds, gripping her by the throat and hissing ravenously into her face. "You," he growled in a feral tone, allowing the word to come forth like a venomous bite. "Heaven sends me this specimen and hopes for my demise, laughable if it were not infuriating."

The enraged inu-youkai tightened his hold as his prey began to squirm fruitlessly against his iron grasp, savoring the look of desperation and fear that played across her features. "Take comfort in knowing that I won't tear your throat just yet, I wish to see your birth before indulging amidst your death," Inuyasha snarled viciously, eliciting a series of strained gasps from the angel's constricted throat. "Your name is Kagome, huh? Born a human and recruited into Heaven's army upon an untimely death only a few years ago...so it would seem that the gods have grown so deep with despondence that they turn sheep into warriors. An archangel in the tenth sephiroth under command of Kannon, the Shinto goddess of mercy. Hmph, she clearly doesn't know her precedence if she sends a youngblood like you to me without so much as ten thousand seraphs behind your back."

Inuyasha sneered in revulsion once he had finished his abridged examination, throwing Kagome to the curb where she clasped her neck in pain and looked up at the youkai with a mix of anger and terror before settling into a light smile. She sat up wordlessly on the roadside and stretched her arms lazily before lying back against the sidewalk, shielding her eyes from the sun with a rigid wing. The inu-youkai struggled to keep his jaw hinged to his skull at the sheer audacity that she must have possessed to leave herself defensless in plain view.

"_That's interesting."_

"_Indeed but I seriously doubt the Shinto pantheon was so ill informed of me that they send her alone with full confidence."_

_And then…her appearance also factors into this, it simply can't be a coincidence, it's impossible._

"_Be on your guard, little brother. That one has a white trinity albeit astoundingly weak. Don't forget, demons fight by corruption of the soul but angels fight through deception and neutralization of the mind, soul, and body to send us into nonexistence."_

While continuing his internal conversation with his elder brother, Inuyasha slowly approached the reclined archangel and looked her over with a wary scowl. She didn't seem to notice his arrival from the outside but her quickening heartbeat betrayed her relaxed visage and unfortunately for her, the youkai's ungodly senses picked up the alteration instantly. He couldn't decide what to do with her, despite his extreme hatred for Kagome's race, corrupting her just seemed pathetic and not to mention completely unnecessary.

"You know," Kagome commented dryly, startling the inu-youkai from his musings as she surveyed the surrounding carnage resulting from his highway rampage. "You're as crazy as they said you were." She dropped her wing from in front of her face and shot him a scolding look, surprisingly exhibiting a lack of resolve pertaining to divine justice which most angels would show openly. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes into suspicious slits and crossed his arms, resting his hand inconspicuously on Tetsusaiga's hilt which hung loosely from his waist. He knew her fear of him to be genuine but the confidence and mischief mixed within it set him on edge, making it all the more difficult to decide her fate.

The archangel sighed at his obvious caution and motioned to stand up from the curb had it not been for the blast of pressure that thrust her back down upon the concrete. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and looked up at the inu-youkai to give him a piece of her mind, shuddering from the notion the instant she met the abysmal gloss that coated his scrutinizing eyes. His silver hair billowed gently in youki induced winds as black stripes continued to contort and wind around his hardened cheeks in intricate patterns, engaged fully in his combat mentality which would cast aside all hesitation and shred Kagome to strips of meat if she even thought about moving once more.

"_Hurry up little brother; you're beginning to bore me."_

"_I refuse to kill her."_

"_Repeat that once more."_

"_I wish to figure this one out before I discard her so easily."_

_Why her? Why someone that resembles the woman that stole everything from me with her final breath? And why send her to confront me alone without a weapon?! This is insulting!"_

Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga from its sheath and swung it casually at blinding speed, stopping at the first touch of skin at Kagome's neck and drawing small droplets of silver blood from the shallow laceration it produced. He frowned in dissatisfaction when she flinched slightly, examining her brainwaves and finding them to correspond normally with the action. "Rise," the inu-youkai ordered coldly, shaking the blood from the blade of his sword and sliding it across the saya before sheathing it firmly. Kagome stood and gave him another bright smile, internally laughing at his visible confusion. Her private mirth dissipated rapidly as Inuyasha's black aura intensified, combat ready and easily enough to overpower her blossoming white trinity thus corrupting her soul into that of a demon's.

"Have at you."

"No."

Kagome took a step back as Inuyasha bared his teeth at her in abhorrence, his eye twitching involuntarily at her chaste refusal to fight. "What say you?!" He growled fiercely, keeping himself on the edge of glacial composure while giving some serious thought to the slur of murderous suggestions Sesshoumaru was shouting in his head. "Are those dog ears just for show, Angelgrinder or are you deaf?!" Kagome yelled back in defiance, pleased at the depth of which the inu-youkai was taken aback by her courage and use of the little nickname. Inuyasha gazed at her with malicious intent for a moment before suddenly draining all emotion from his face and casting his sword to the side of the street.

"It is not within your power to choose; you will either fight and die or be instantly corrupted. And do not think for a second that your white soul could keep me from doing so, compare the resistance to a candle in a midnight wind," he delivered coolly, taking immense satisfaction in the renewed fear that shined somberly in Kagome's platinum-blue eyes. "So what shall be your choice, wench?" Inuyasha spat the final word with such hatred that it seemed to impact on the archangel's face as she slightly reeled from the designation. "I should've expected as much from a youkai with a record like yours, and here I just wanted to have a friendly talk with you."

_She wanted to wha…_

"Enough of this, you've wasted my generosity," Inuyasha hissed venomously, launching himself across the air and bringing his claws through the softness of Kagome's abdomen with lightning speed. Silver blood stained his fingers as he licked them eagerly, watching the archangel stumble backwards to the ground with his peripheral vision. "If you do not make an effort to survive than you will never see reincarnation after your death," he cooed cruelly, focusing his black-crimson stare onto the recovering Kagome. She lay beneath him with four widespread slashes dividing her bloodstained robes as she struggled to rise to her feet. The image, although seen countless times by the inu-youkai held special significance when it came to this particular instance, making it all the more difficult to carry out his ultimatum.

_**You'll kill her twice now, won't you?**_

_A daughter of Heaven with Kikyou's face deserves nothing better than to perish beneath me as she did. I'll slaughter the entire Shinto pantheon for this abomination._

_**So you will end her simply because of her appearance, does the crusade against the angels mean nothing now. Keep her alive for a source of information if not for subjecting yourself to the pain of remembrance. **_

He looked down with mixed emotions as Kagome slowed her breathing and began to rise, engaged in a solitary battle against his moral sense. Once the archangel was back steadily upon her feet, she crossed her arms and waited silently for Inuyasha's next move. The inu-youkai wavered for a moment before loosing all control at seeing her blatant refusal to fight and broke past countless barriers dividing himself until his black aura flowed without restraint. All traces of vermillion vanished from his eyes instantly as they transformed into hollow, onyx orbs that seemed to devour the light around them. Dark winds blasted outwards from his body like evaporated ink, consuming the entire highway in an apocalyptic haze without a hint of the sun to be seen beyond the hellish smog.

Inuyasha stood seething in the darkness a small distance away from Kagome, black stripes wound in vicious patterns around his face as his claws and fangs reached their maximum length. The archangel watched in horror as the white light of her mind, body, soul enveloped her body in a protective shell while her wings began shedding their feathers rapidly, a clear sign of the prevalent corruption that threatened to choke her into submission. She could hear a thousand alarms going off in her head, telling her to run, telling her to abandon her mission and protect her life instead of facing the monstrous youkai before her.

Still, she stood weakly against the blackness, resolved to test for herself the extent of his abysmal powers. It became increasingly difficult to remain upright as the torrential winds intensified, sucking up vehicles and corpses into its sinister vortex. Inuyasha approached her once she had reluctantly buckled under the pressure and looked over her fallen body with disdain, shocked at the determination that still shone within her eyes. "Will you fight," he asked in a commanding tone, his voice deep and distorted with blackness. Kagome met his eyes unwaveringly even as the corruption threatened to strip her of her wings and change her into a demon. "I'm not even gonna lift a finger," she shouted over the hurricane of energy, prompting the inu-youkai to grip her by the fold of her robes and lift her dangerously close to her face.

She winced in agony as the silver blood from her wounds began to darken into a grey sulfurous liquid, his touch turning every sacred aspect of her body into atrocity. He gnashed his teeth once, causing her to flinch as he began to turn her. "I am Inuyasha, black prince of the unholy trinity, that which has driven the valkyries to extinction and stolen the serenity from Buddha's face to be replaced by a thousand curses as he met his grave, enemy of piety and the carrier of Hell's infernal legacy. You dare humiliate me by refusing combat?" He growled dismally, shaking the archangel before throwing her once more to the curb.

_**Kikyou wouldn't fight you either, don't you remember…the way she smelled of wildflowers despite their absence in Hell? This one possesses the same scent, could you do it all over again, I wonder?**_

_This angel whore has desecrated my memories of her with her appearance, that in itself should condemn her to oblivion!_

_**You say she's "desecrated your memories of her"? And which ones would those be, the ones in which she lay beneath you screaming as her blood coated your claws?! **_

_I may have killed her but she was executed by the angels and departed into the realm of nonexistence so that I may never know her touch again!_

_**You fool! Are you so hopelessly childish that you blame the gods for her destruction; you were the catalyst for her ultimate death and no one else? It's time to take responsibility; if the girl won't fight then she has no reason to die. Mindlessly slaughtering angels accomplishes none of our goals, you should return home and collect your thoughts.**_

Inuyasha cast his gaze downwards to where Kagome now lay writhing on the asphalt, her white aura making its last stand against his corruption. The storm of black energy lessened its assault as he suppressed his murderous urges and felt his claws and fangs retract in length along with the markings on his face unwind into linear stripes. Lastly, his eyes lost their matte-black sheen and returned to their natural golden amber which surprised him greatly seeing as how after the war and the recent transformation they should have been stained for at least a decade.

Kagome quickly scrambled to her feet once recovered and faced him with an unidentifiable expression as the feathers swiftly grew back atop her wings. She flashed another bright smile and made her way over to Inuyasha who still harbored a dangerous glare within his slightly more benign gaze. "Come to your senses, have you," she chirped happily, tending to her duties and directing the earthbound human souls from the various car accidents upwards to face judgment in Heaven. "Kannon-sama didn't think I'd survive this one, I'd better get a promotion or something," Kagome mused, noting Inuyasha retrieving his discarded sword from the curb and sliding it into his obi.

He then looked over at Kagome perplexedly, standing stalk still for a moment before drawing a constricting cage of black energy around the archangel with his forefinger and turning his back to her. She stood dumbstruck at the odd turn of events until reality set in and began shouting curses at the retreating inu-youkai. "HEY! You can't just leave me in here!" Kagome immediately silenced when he turned his head slightly, exposing a single glowering eye for only an instant before continuing his walk down the deserted freeway with his silver hair waving gently behind him.

_Great, now what?_

She hesitantly touched one of the bars of black energy and yelped loudly as the flesh was seared from her finger, sucking on it pitifully to lessen the pain.

"_Kannon-sama, I'd really appreciate some help down here."_

Apparently her small prayer was heard with deft ears because the air suddenly grew thick with white and light energy, immediately purifying the remnants of Inuyasha's corruption. Kagome watched Inuyasha halt his movement mid-stride in the distance and blink back in front of her with alarming speed. "Is this your doing," he inquired dryly with his head turned towards the parting clouds in the morning sky. "No but it serves you right for locking me in this stupid cage. I can't even stretch my wings out in-"

"Silence," Inuyasha interrupted harshly, raising his hand to further illustrate his command. Luminescent rays of sunlight poured through the swirling opening in the thunderheads, causing the inu-youkai to cover his eyes from their offending purity. "Ooh, you're going to get it now," Kagome chimed mockingly, breaking free from the weakened prison of black energy with the power of her white trinity.

"Little brother…"

Both immortals turned briskly to see Sesshoumaru standing along the side of the highway, his presence having been previously undetected by the sheer radiance that coated the air. "We're leaving," he stated casually, moving up to his younger brother and removing his hand from the hilt of his sword, shaking his head in disapproval. Inuyasha glared at him for a moment but reluctantly let his weapon drop back to his side and looked once more to the dissipating clouds. "At least a hundred thousand," he commented absent-mindedly. "Sesshoumaru, the two of us could certainly slay that many seraphs within the day." The elder inu-youkai slowly nodded but made no suggestion of backing out from his previous order. "Your mission was to provide us with an estimated time amount, nothing more. But disregarding that…you seem damaged, we're leaving."

"Hey, what about me?!"

Both brothers turned their heads and gave the stubborn archangel an incredulous expression before reverting into their regal nature.

_I'm seeing double…_

"You," Sesshoumaru hissed, startling Kagome from her thoughts. "My little brother hesitates to kill no one; this Sesshoumaru will identify the nature of your deception before next we meet. I recommend you return home and spend the rest of eternity counting your blessings for narrowly escaping ultimate destruction." And with that, both inu-youkai disappeared into the air as legions of six-winged angels descended onto the Earth. The purifying fire that made up their eyes burned with resentment towards the departed pair before two hundred thousand of them turned to face the lone archangel. "You're no longer needed here," they uttered simultaneously, creating a massive choir with the sheer number of their voices. Kagome took one look at their armor clad bodies and silver spears, sighing heavily before stretching into her full wingspan. She launched swiftly into the air and sailed upwards, breaking through the dimensional barriers before returning to Heaven.

She emerged back home atop an elevated walkway overlooking the cosmos below with scattered nebulae circling underneath. Taking a deep inhalation of the sterile air, she proceeded to the massive tower in the distance. The structure, known as the Shinto Parthenon extended far beyond even her supernatural eyesight could fathom, built fully in traditional Japanese architecture and standing as an imposing object to any beholder. Flying above several rows of newly-ascended humans who reveled in their newfound salvation, she soared closer to the massive obelisk and eventually landed atop a high balcony near the center of the building.

Sliding open the ornate shoji doors, Kagome entered a remarkably modern-furnished office environment in which divine creatures of all manner pertaining to the Shinto-Buddhist religion scurried about hurriedly to complete whatever task was given to them by the gods. Portraits depicting Amida, the native sovereign to this section of Heaven, adorned the walls of the elaborately constructed rooms, kept in close company by several others showing watercolors of Izanagi, Izanami, Susanoo, or whichever deity found themselves suited amongst the rice paper fortifications.

The archangel moved down the sterile corridors until coming across what looked to be a lavish wooden doorway hanging at the end of a busy hallway. She pushed it open without knocking and immediately kicked off her straw sandals in favor of walking barefoot on the rich grassy terrain beneath. Closing the door and dividing uniform white tile from lush green vegetation, Kagome surveyed the so-called "office" with enthusiasm. The entire area was a singular grassy expanse with a lone hill centered from the doorway sporting a single cherry blossom at its crest. Infinitely clear skies acted as the ceiling, allowing the archangel to fly freely to the redwood desk below the falling pink petals.

A comely looking woman with fine white robes laced with golden trim sat with a welcoming smile behind the desktop, fingers knitted in an executive pose atop an elegant oak chair. "You did well for your first real assignment, kiddo." Kagome prostrated herself briefly before the goddess of mercy and took a seat on a chair materializing instantly before her. "That's a relief, Kannon-sama. I thought I did horribly, what was I supposed to accomplish anyway?"

"Your objective was to survive and that in itself is a challenge."

Kagome scoffed audibly and shared a small laugh with her superior. "I was sure that I was done for. Do you have any idea why he didn't finish me off?" Kannon leaned back in her chair with a pensive expression, unfolding her hands and tapping her fingers lightly on top of her desk. "I have a couple theories but who really knows? Believe it or not, he's much older than the Shinto pantheon and his way of thinking is certainly unique compared to most youkai or even demons in general. My best guess is that he found you interesting and seeks to preserve you until the little angel girl grows tiresome and vain." Kagome nodded, with the brief encounter with Inuyasha's personality, that definitely seemed like a large possibility.

"I have his advanced file if you want to look at it," Kannon offered, snapping her fingers and directing a massive folder onto her desk. Noticing that her archangel was too shocked to speak, the goddess of mercy took the liberty and flipped the manila envelope open. She took several documents from the top and began reading them aloud to the now recovered Kagome. "Born about four hundred thousand years after the end of the Jigoku era to a prominent inu-youkai family in the heart of the western plains in Hell's eighth circle, Inuyasha led the standard life of a demon at the time until some time during the Yomi era where he just vanished from our sight. This guy came back fifty thousand years later as the second most powerful black trinity next to Azhi Dahaka, greater demon of the eastern quadrant."

"As you can see, there's a big gap in our information and we want you to be the one that fills it," Kannon stated with finality, tossing the papers to Kagome who looked them over with mild interest. "You think I can just go up an interview him, I doubt I'll even get a second chance to meet him without getting torn to shreds." The deity of mercy nodded slowly in hesitant agreement before leaning forward to engage her archangel in a bit more serious manner. "Look, I won't lie to you. Inuyasha's the most dangerous and volatile youkai out there and we're taking a huge gamble by sending you to him but we need to know more about him." She took another stack of papers from the gargantuan file and shook her head in amazement. "This is a report from the Christian pantheon about his abilities. They say he knows ways to kill angels they haven't seen for millions of years…which means that he learned his skills from someone other than his family because their records don't show any of these techniques."

"Advanced black energy manipulation, upper rank arcane magick, light-touch maneuvering, high class white energy neutralization…I haven't even heard of half of these things."

Kagome frowned heavily and sighed in defeat, getting a sympathetic look from her superior. "Don't pout, most angels would kill to be assigned to a handsome guy like him."

"KANNON-SAMA!"

"Relax kid, just playing around."

They stood from their seats and bowed formally, showing the short meeting to be concluded even if a thousand questions still tugged at Kagome's mind. "Look, I know you were a human only a decade ago and this is a hard assignment," Kannon began softly, bringing her hand to rest atop the archangel's shoulder. "We just need you to get anything on him, anything at all at we'll pull you out of there as fast as we can." Kagome inclined her head slightly and smiled at the goddess before exiting the shade of the singular cherry blossom and leaving to further consult the large file in the comfort of her room in the Shinto Parthenon.

**

* * *

**

Author's Note:

So yeah, I made Inuyasha into a sociopath. lol. Did anyone notice the impromptu quote from Hannibal?

And just to clarify, he wasn't arguing with some outside malevolent force or his inner youkai but just a manifestation of his conscience. I know things are a little confusing now but there will be massive amounts of light shined on everything in the next chapter so stay tuned, read and review!

In other news, Harvest Children is on the chopping block. I'll cancel it if I don't get any serious protest, the whole thing was an experimental story to see what I'd be writing in the future and I've taken a strong liking to the supernatural genre. That's it...experiment's over.


	5. Remembrance

Under the eclipsed sun of the western quadrant in the eighth circle of Hell, a small ripple in the crimson skies opened swiftly into a cosmic portal where two silver-haired figures fell ever downwards. Immersed in the searing atmosphere and the wailing cries of the damned below, they landed elegantly through the barrier surrounding their castle and stood facing the entrance with obvious tension between them.

Both brothers proceeded silently towards the door, walking briskly and only stopping to look at one another when they're hands met at the large brass handle. They looked at each other with equally unidentifiable expressions, quickly withdrawing their arms and made their eyes mirrors of the others'. Steely and unwavering, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru refused to move until the problem at hand was thrust into the open.

"Why did you not-"

"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you," Inuyasha hissed, catching his elder brother off guard by the sheer ferocity laced within his guttural tone. He stood seething with anger radiating outwards from his profile, enough to absorb even Sesshoumaru's outrage resulting from the younger inu-youkai's venomous disrespect. The tension was visible now, palpable, extending far beyond the distance in between the two youkai as their gazes clashed at the scale of an apocalyptic battle.

Sesshoumaru waited with impressive patience, easing himself slowly into a less of a non-threatening demeanor and more into a state of indifference with his eyes set inquisitively towards Inuyasha. "I know you," he sated calmly, stopping his younger brother with a firm but benign grasp as he motioned to retreat in the opposite direction of the castle's entrance. "Although you rarely exhibit this level of vexation, I have seen enough of it to distinguish variation." Inuyasha completely ceased his minimal resistance against his binding and sank slightly in posture. His eyes had relaxed and remained downcast, finding reprieving interest in the winding stone walkway beneath his feet that lead towards the castle's main gate.

He knew he had been caught, to which depth he couldn't fathom nor did he persist because he knew Sesshoumaru was likely to tell him in the blunt tone he abhorred since he was a child. Still, despite the raw emotion staining his features, Inuyasha turned and met his brother head on without even attempting to hide himself from plain view. Sadness permeated the air about him; something Sesshoumaru didn't think existed within the mass of blackness linked to his lineage. The elder inu-youkai dropped his hold immediately and stared in disbelief into what he had expected to be the usual evasive, stone-faced monolith of a creature but now stood as somewhat…broken.

"I see there is…much I haven't learned about you, little brother," Sesshoumaru sighed, stroking his moko-moko as if he were rewarding an obedient cat. "Why you chose not to kill that angel wench is something I do not expect to ever hear from you but nevertheless, I will request it." Inuyasha remained impassive, even in his somber state he was still invulnerable to interrogation. "Your anger," Sesshoumaru began once more, forsaking the previous question for a later date. "Is one not directed at the girl or the reason why you chose not to slay her…it is distant, even ancient and seems to be a bitter memory."

Inuyasha looked up at his elder brother with renewed fire, confirming to him that he had been fairly accurate with his assumptions.

_But he's right; Kikyou is…just a memory now. Because of me, she suffered a fate worse than death and these thoughts had escaped me until that wretch of an archangel tainted my eyes with her face. _

When he tried once more to proceed to the castle gate, he found Sesshoumaru matching his stride and locking onto him with a stern gaze. "You harbor many mysteries, little brother. If I've offended you, I offer my apology. I can see that further discussion of this matter troubles you far more than any previous engagement that I can recall at the moment." They reached the iron bars of the front entrance and halted again to survey the scorched landscape before them, the area that was now their home and precedence. The western plains, Hell's crown jewel and the most desired of all cardinal directions.

Sesshoumaru risked a gaze towards his brother, relaxing as he appeared his usual cloudy self but stopped to wonder at the small amount of puzzlement dancing across his golden eyes. "We have a duty to fulfill with father and the others down in the city…" The elder inu-youkai didn't think it necessary to state the obvious, cleansing the capital city of Beelzebub's loyalists was an obligation and one he had thought his brother eager to attend to. When no answer came to confirm his faith, he grew wary and drew his hand away from the iron gate. "Little brother, you aren't going to deny your family as well now, are you?"

Inuyasha remained silent as he thrust open the gates, disabling the surrounding barriers and allowing him to pass out onto the molten plains leading to the city below. He turned halfway to meet his brother who had followed behind at a slower pace, bearing an expression towards him that demanded acceptance to whatever he would say next. "I have much to contemplate. As you said, you know me well enough that you could detect any abnormalities in my nature. I'm going alone and plan to be back within the day so I beg of you not to have anyone search for me." Both brothers looked at each other with equally stoic features, regal in posture and carrying a hidden understanding between them. Sesshoumaru knew that his approval was not needed, Inuyasha had regarded him without the proper respect expected of an elder sibling for millennia now and he had grown over it with time.

A sharp mew broke the comfortable silence as Kilala bounded through the treeline of the surrounding ashen forest and rubbed her head on her master's leg before taking her usual position atop his shoulder. Much to her dismay, he refused to spare even his usual small smirk and never removed his gaze away from his elder brother. "Perhaps, I won't be going alone then but regardless…I will take my leave from my given duties." Sesshoumaru nodded slowly and tossed the stray end of his moko-moko over his shoulder, motioning to leave for the city. "Very well then, while you're out pondering I'll let my left hand take your name so that you may know some blood today." He stopped further down the igneous slope and admired the scenery of the gothic styled urban setting bellow. "We will discuss this absolutely in the evening."

And with that, he let his eyes bleed crimson and vaulted into the air as an orb of youki before slamming back down to the cauterized earth as a great white dog. The sapphire moon branding his forehead gleamed with internal light as the transformed inu-youkai turned to meet his brother for the last time.

"_Be back by midnight or I __**will**__ track you down."_

_As if you could catch me…_

"_I had no intention of staying out so late; expect me home soon after you arrive back."_

Inuyasha crossed his arms and remained motionless until his monstrous brother was well into the distance before dematerializing into the air. Traveling between the dimensions of space, he emerged shortly back into the eighth circle within less than a second. He was in the center of a clearing surrounded by a charred forest deep in the heart of the western plains, close to his previous dominion before the start of the war. The trees burned thick with blue-tinted flame in a sphere around him yet there was an anomaly within the clearing, a single tree that refused to ignite despite Hell's extreme temperatures. Inuyasha approached the oddity with graceful strides and drew his hand over the chiseled bark, feeling the essence of the large oak through the tips of his fingers.

This held special significance for him; he had been here before as a frightened child with misconstrued ambition and clouded thoughts. Bitter memories were locked inside the clearing of the burning forest, immortalized by the tree that would not catch fire. Kilala mewed pitifully and hopped down from her perch to lay in the dry grass next to her master, distraught by the previous teleportation. "I apologize, little kitten. I know such travel is a burden on your stomach," Inuyasha sighed, throwing his back to the wood and sliding down until he met the ground with a small rustle of foliage beneath him. He looked towards the sky and momentarily watched the blackened clouds drift fiercely across the vermillion ambience, passing the eclipsed sun to further block the already scarce light.

Searing winds tossed the branches about above the seated inu-youkai, creating an eerily peaceful environment in the infernal realm. Inuyasha broke his stare from the abysmal sky as a small weight shifted onto his lap; the nekomata had climbed aboard him once more to seek comfort in the folds of his dark robe. She noted his depression, rare but not yet unseen, coming out every so often after his past resurfaced abruptly. Kilala tried to comfort her master any way she could during the times when he absconded to the forest across the horizon from his old home, doing all she could to ease him into normal behavior.

A shadow suddenly crossed her fur as a large tome materialized in her master's hands and fell open further up his lap, displaying countless pages with hastily scribbled notes staining every inch of parchment. Kilala knew not to look, Inuyasha had insisted that he was to be the only one reading the text and enforced his policy whenever she attempted to peek out from the corner of her eye. The book was an old present from his father to be used to document every important occurrence in his life so that a certain collection of memoirs could be consulted whenever he felt the need for nostalgia. Such things were common for the immortal existence, harboring journals enchanted so that every page written spawned another blank sheet at the back, ensuring that only one volume was ever needed.

Flipping swiftly to the back, Inuyasha produced a quill in his right hand and immediately began to dictate every thought that crossed his mind onto the canvas, sparing a glance every so often to make sure that his familiar kept her eyes averted from his work.

_Year 2,804,934 of the Yokoshima Era_

_I hadn't thought much of it despite a few vagrant musings that constantly pestered my mind; that is…until now. On my first visit to Earth in some unnatural number of years, I came across a young archangel by the designation of one Kagome. Her very name churns the contents of my stomach every upwards, vile whore might seek to conquer me through the illness that she induces. She is an odd specimen of am angel, resilient to corruption and giving me those same bloody smiles that haunted my dreams ever since I saw __**her**__ last. A brazen, insufferable wench at best and she dares come alone to confront me without so much as a dagger to ward me off. Through rage and disbelief, I found myself unable to kill her and sent her home in the most humiliating fashion mind you. Still, that infernal voice made itself known again today. I've identified it to be linked to times of moral crises and sounding as a tone from my youth. It's rather annoying but so is insanity…perhaps I should not stray into self-loathing today; I'm not much for it._

_My actions provided personal confusion for several minutes of blissful ignorance until elder brother brought the truth upon my head as if it were a dull axe. Sesshoumaru rightfully chastises me for my lack of obedience; I had neither slain nor corrupted her and stained my honor with significant damage to my pride. But I simply could not kill her, it was pitiful, insulting, and not to mention puerile of the gods to even consider her a threat to me. Elder brother suspects a deeper more inconspicuous side to her and I agree, there must be something about the whore that gives the Shinto pantheon confidence in her ability to end me. I'll be going back to Earth tomorrow and wreak enough havoc so that they have but no choice to either come themselves or send a million seraphs to battle. The brazen angel will see what my black trinity can accomplish, I swear upon this manuscript that Heaven will regret for eternity sending her to me._

_However, there is one more factor that I hesitate to document. She, the archangel that is, bears a striking resemblance to Kikyou and that…has rendered me "damaged" as Sesshoumaru would have it. I hadn't kept her in my memory for some time now, that is something I regret. This will undoubtedly further complicate the execution of the angel as well as raise my suspicions towards her. I would expect as much from the gods, crafting a human to the likeness of the only woman to know me and use her as a weapon. But I seriously doubt that this is the case, no one has knowledge of us except for her father, another one I had nearly forgotten about._

_I should visit him and the others soon after I'm finished in the new kingdom._

Inuyasha took the quill up from his journal and tossed it aside, shaking his head towards Kilala who had mistaken him for being finished so soon. He skimmed through the large tome, scanning the pages with tired eyes until an entry near the beginning caught his attention. It was written poorly, exhibiting the grammar of a child and stained with distorted marks on the paper that smelled of ancient salt. How long had it been since he cried? In his current state of blackness and hatred, the action seemed a level above impossible. Inuyasha traced a claw over the start of the incoherent words and began reading a passage in his life that he had often wished to forget. It was an entry dated back to the day when he had found his mother to be a fallen angel.

_Year 78,016 of the Yomi Era_

_I can't believe that mama lied to me all years; she always told me that she was made like father and mistress Akkiyoru-sama. Today she called me in early from father's training and gave me some raw liver. She even watched me while I ate it and mama never looks at us while we eat. It made me happy to see her with me like that until what happened later but I'll tell you that once I get there. Mama looked so pretty today with the new dress she made after everyone got home from the last fight against the angels, its peacetime now and I wished it could stay like that forever even if it meant that Sesshoumaru-sama and mistress Akkiyoru-sama had to stay home too. I finally learned today why they hit me when father and mama are away, sometimes they spit on me too but at least it doesn't hurt. Oh yeah and there's that green whip that they cut me with when I'm alone for a real long time and they make me swear not to tell anyone or else they'll feed me to a Cerberus._

_Anyway, mama kissed me on the forehead and opened her mouth like she was going to say something but she ran out of the mansion faster than I could keep up. I looked for her for a long time, sneaking around like the way I taught myself when I'm home alone with Sesshoumaru-sama until I heard father's voice coming from their bedroom. He was sad for some reason; I could smell it on him and mama too. They were hugging, I think and whispering real quietly before I heard what mama really was._

_She's an angel, mama's an angel and she never even told me! And a seraph, those things that father taught me to run away from because they could kill me with fire from their eyes. It must be pretty hot because I jumped in the lava pits the other day and didn't even turn red that time. Mama was crying and even though I was really scared and surprised, my chest hurt when I could smell that salty scent coming from her eyes. So I moved a little closer and suddenly they stopped talking. I tried to run when I heard them coming towards the door but my legs work. Father and mama just stood there and stared at me for a long time with this weird look that scared me back into being able to move again._

_I ran and ran even though nobody was behind me, going out of the mansion as fast as I could until the city was just a small dot behind me._

_I'm sitting under a tree now, the only one in our territory that doesn't burn. I've been crying a lot and I can't stop, maybe it's one of those angel curses the militia men talk about when they come home. My chest still hurts and I feel really sad, usually I'd let mama read to me when I'm like this but not today. Running away from home might've been a really stupid thing to do but I can't go back now. Mama isn't a real youkai and that means I'm not either, it would only shame father if I stuck around back home. Maybe Sesshoumaru-sama and mistress Akkiyoru-sama were right all along. I should probably get walking._

Inuyasha twirled his index finger idly around the spot where his tears had once fallen freely onto the parchment, pausing only a moment before skipping a few pages ahead.

__

Year 78,018 of the Yomi Era

_I've been traveling for two years now. It's really cold wherever I am and the sun is a lot darker here than usual, maybe I'm up north._

_I can't remember why I brought this thing with me and not something useful but it does make nights alone a lot shorter when I write in it. This huge book and a few quills were the only things I grabbed from my room when I ran out two years ago. Father and mama must be worried sick about me but I bet Sesshoumaru-sama and mistress Akkiyoru-sama are happy. I've been living up here in the north for a while now, every time I move up it gets a little darker and a little colder. The demons here are really nice, they give me food and shelter but I haven't found anywhere new that I want to live yet._

_When the night comes, there isn't any moon and monsters come out to chase me during the blizzards. Ice is everywhere up here and I can't start a fire while I hide up in the trees. It's so weird that the one thing that was all over the place back home is nowhere around here. Frost giants move in packs like inu-youkai at night, they say they're from someplace called Niflheim in the sixth circle. None of father's tutors ever told me about a place like that, it's definitely not a realm of one of the major cultures._

_I got out of my growth repression almost as soon as I ran away, my footprints in the snow are getting bigger every month and I feel the need to eat more. I travel in herds of demons when I can so I don't have to sleep alone, going as my true inu-youkai form to look bigger so they won't fight me._

_I'm in a group of ice elementals right now, they're all women and take care of me like mama used to. I really miss her but I don't think I'll ever like her the same way ever again now that I know the truth. Sometimes I check to see if wings are growing out of my back, I know it's stupid but it's become a habit._

_The fire's dying out, I should go…_

_

* * *

_

Year 78,019 of the Yomi Era

_It's the day after the start of the new year and I got separated from the ice women I had grown to call as a family about a week ago. There was a terrible blizzard and they moved to fast for me to follow, they're lucky I can't fly transformed in this weather. In fact, I just came out of my transformation a little while ago so I could write, I'm really lonely and I miss mama badly, father too…and maybe even my big brother and his mother despite how poorly they treated me. I used to look up to Sesshoumaru-sama but not anymore, I don't want to be anything like him. He's always so quiet and angry, taking it out on me just because I'm a kid._

_I'm sitting in a tree right now and it's getting hard to write. Two of my fingers turned black the other day…I don't know what to do._

_

* * *

_

Year 78,019 of the Yomi Era

_I'm really hungry; I started writing to keep my mind off my stomach. A couple days ago I tried to eat my wounded fingers but they were too hard and didn't taste right. Still, I bit them off and rubbed the blood on my face to keep me warm. It has to be the winter wherever this place is. I hope I don't die and get captured by the angels but…they can't do much worse than this._

_I saw a big road on the horizon yesterday, I'm going to try and get to it before nightfall. I'm being stupid again, night and day are the same here, there's no sun or moon out in these woods._

…

_My feet started bleeding again just now; I lost all the skin because the ice just rips it off. Things don't hurt much anymore though; I want to see mistress Akkiyoru-sama whip me now. I don't really like my family anymore except for mama and that's weird because she was the one I ran away from. I've been doing a lot of thinking out here and I'm never going back home, I never want people to lie to me or hurt me again._

…

_My legs are getting dark too now or maybe it's just the blood. They don't smell right, I think they might sick with something._

"To think that I was once so weak as to succumb to frostbite," Inuyasha murmured, flipping past a few more pages of lachrymose entries while Kilala cocked her head lazily to one side at his mumbling. Her master turned to meet her skeptic gaze with a slight sense of morbid humor and scratched her behind a black-furred ear poking up from her cream colored scalp. "It's true," he began matter-of-factly. "I had once lost all motor functions in my legs while visiting the northern quadrant when I was a child. Ghastly business, that was. I crawled about using only my arms through the tundra for weeks until lapsing into a state of near-death in the frozen wastelands."

The small nekomata perked up at his admittance of weakness and let out an edging mew once Inuyasha had ceased speaking. "No, no. The events that took place after that is something I wouldn't even confide to mother if she were to threaten to turn herself over to the angels."

"Mew!"

"You're right…I most certainly would not hesitate to give in to an ultimatum of such caliber."

"Mew?"

"No, I didn't perish up in the north, I…well…found a niche so to say where I could recover in peace. My legs had been amputated and regenerated within a fair amount of time; I had been unconscious during the whole process however. But as I said, the details are rather personal and I wouldn't risk telling them to a man who could not speak nor think anything of them," Inuyasha stated with finality, turning his eyes back towards the gargantuan journal in his lap, eyeing his familiar to make sure she would keep away from his most haunted memories.

__

Year 78,023 of the Yomi Era

_I had dug my own grave in the snow and sat in the permafrost waiting for my own death, watching the dark shades of gray that made up the arctic sky meld into a singular haze as my vision faded. _

_This was four years ago…_

_Since then, my growth acceleration has halted and I can feel the early stages of adolescence tugging at my body's internal structure. I look to be about the same size as elder brother when I had last saw him, although he is most likely ahead of me yet again. _

_I see I still have the habit of leading my ink astray, allow me to carry on..._

_After I had accepted my own fate and waited to have my soul scorched by the seraph's purifying fire, I slipped into a daze and saw nothing but darkness. I awoke some time later in a strikingly ornate bed chamber, decorated with all manner of lavish articles. Thinking it to be a dream or the pleasures of nonexistence after executed by the gods, I removed my covers and found a perfectly healthy set of legs beneath my waist. Of course then, I didn't know that four years had passed and merely accepted my altered body as some insignificant, bizarre occurrence resulting from my death. _

_It's almost funny now that I think about it. Surveying the surrounding area, I found myself in a high loft above what must have been the grandest castle I had ever seen. I looked out through many of the arched windows and felt the cool embrace of the frigid snows blowing lethargically onto my face, melting upon contact. I'm still in the north, further up from where I had expected the end of my life. Midnight is eternal here, the sun is in full eclipse unlike back home and I have yet to see even the smallest of moons lighting the sky. _

_At this point, I began thinking less of death and more of rescue. So I moved a plush chair from a nearby tea table and sat it against the window, relaxing into comfort after realizing my survival. I sat my eyes over the ice-ridden steeples of the castle and outwards onto the darkened plains of the infinite glacial wastelands beyond them. Nothing else came to my mind but "beautiful". There are no humans here to break the winter silence with their cries of agony and no wars to stain the snow with bitter blood. Peace prevails, something I had long thought no place in Hell could ever have. Wherever this land was, I wanted to live here, away from a family half shrouded in secrecy and half in malicious spite. Nothing but quiet tranquility…perhaps abandoning father and mother might not have been such a poor choice after all._

_I didn't even break my sense of awe as a pair of auras made their way towards me and turned the knob of the door directly behind me. It never crossed my mind for an instance that they might have been threats; their demon energies were as placid and recluse as the environment around them. One of them approached me and mimicked my posture beside the window while the other stood against the doorway, emitting a scent of mixed shyness and humility. I laugh now as I remember my ignorance towards the one next to me as he sat lazily upon another elegant chair, remaining silent for several minutes until commenting warmly on my recovery._

"_You seem to be in good health, might I ask your name?" he said to me, humble and unlike any other demon that I had ever met. I broke my stare from the scenery to meet him, startled by the depth of his simple smile. He was a comely man with medium length black hair, sporting very welcoming features amidst a face devoid of even the slightest imperfection. However, his robes were of remarkably poor quality which led me to believe him to be a servant of whichever demon acted as master within the castle. This assumption has proven to be one of my most regretful mistakes._

_He introduced himself as Belial, king of the northern plains and lord of pride, a title I think ironic to his deferential nature. I immediately scrambled from my chair and bowed to the stone floor, hoping that the greater demon would not seek repentance for my insolence. Belial began to laugh as I prostrated myself and picked me up swiftly, seating me once more in my chair. He said, "Do not lower yourself below me, for I am worthless." _

_How can a sovereign demon be worthless?_

_Belial has never once seemed to me as pretentious in the few short weeks that I have been in his company, he and his daughter that is. She was the one hiding amongst the shadows cast by the high doorway behind us as well as the one who had healed me,_ _she scented of wildflowers, something I had only known through mother who had once carried that fragrance about her as if it were the air of heaven following like a shadow of her forsaken grace. It startled me at first, to think that anyone in the frozen north could harbor such a scent. I later learned that she keeps a garden in her room, grown from seeds stolen from heaven by her father. Thinking of this kind of relationship made me long for my own family but…I have denounced myself from them and I have no intention of breaking my vow. _

_Her name is Kikyou, seemingly the only child of my gracious host, born from a youkai mother. A yuki-onna if I were to guess; a snow woman from the outlying regions. That assumption seems fitting, everything about her reminds me of snow; distant and shy. Her fair skin seems like a thin sheet of ice that threatens to crack under the slightest pressure, stretching elegantly over her frame with a certain soft fragility that I have never encountered before. _

_Try as I might, an audience with her is a very hard thing to attain. Belial is not concerned over her isolation in the least bit; he calls her the haunting spirit of his castle with nothing short of a small laugh. She would not even keep my presence when I attempted to thank her after learning that she had been the one to heal my wounds. _

_There are no servants here, no court, no one in addition to the three of us. I am scolded when I accidentally use an honorific to address Belial or refer to him in any higher term in my native language; it is strange…but comforting at the same time. The two of us get along quite well, sharing small bits of our past near the fireplace in the foyer like I used to with my family. He knows who I am and tells me that a search has been conducted across the entire eighth circle, looking for my whereabouts. Belial will not turn me in, that much I am certain, he leaves it to my own choice whether I return home or not. _

_We talk all through the days, engaged in philosophical discussions which sometimes succeed in luring Kikyou away from the garden in her bedroom to join us. She seeks shelter close by her father and gives me wary glances when she is not speaking which is often. I think it's truly ridiculous behavior for someone like her, she is slightly more advanced in growth than me after all, but I am still older. Apparently it is due from her lack of contact with the outside world, living a life with only her father and perhaps a mother at one point, I have neither seen nor heard of her so I can safely assume her death to be eternal. Another murder by the angels, maybe. _

_I try to catch her and speak to her alone when I have the chance but she proves to be too fast for me and gives her father a sense of mirth at my expense. She absconds to her room and spends her time with that infernal garden for days at a time, something that would bore me within a minute. Limiting my communication to only one man, despite his wealth of knowledge and ease of understanding is proving difficult. I am to speak with him once more later today, not in the foyer but in another room he had directed me to this morning. I haven't the slightest idea of what he seemed so urgent to talk to me about. _

_

* * *

_

Year 78,023 of the Yomi Era

_A large number of events have taken place since my last entry, some of which might be hard to believe. _

_That night when Belial had called me forth, he spoke to me about my family which was not one of our usual subjects. He inquired sternly about my reasons for running away to which I hesitated to answer. But I trusted him, more that I should have thought possible for a demon as unfamiliar to me as he and told him of my mother's lineage. What possessed me to do so was foreign and to this day remains a mystery. I watched as his eyes took on an unidentifiable gloss and a small smile cover his lips; I thought he was mocking me at the time. _

_The truth was far from it. Belial is a fallen angel as well, evolving into a demon after years of spite towards Heaven transformed him into a creature of malice. I was shocked at first, appalled even but I refused to run yet again. Perhaps it was because he was not as close to me as my mother was or such a thing just seemed expected of someone that conquered the hatred of a demon festering in their heart. My legs worked perfectly and I did not turn to escape, I merely stood my ground and nodded slowly. _

_Belial then asked me if I hated angels, hated Heaven like I had been taught. I answered yes immediately and that seemed to disappoint him, not because of my positive acknowledgment but more from how I said it. He sighed like he had just lost some great battle and led me to a room next to the one in which we were meeting. It was a circular chamber with what looked like black water filling a spherical indentation in the floor, waving about in some unnatural current. The words "abandon all hope, ye who enter" were engraved at the bottom; I had never felt anything so ominous in my life. _

"_You run from your mother because of views that others have taught you, hate her for who she is without thinking on your own accord. I had long sent my abhorrence to heaven with sound fury during the days of my youth, those times are long gone," he said to me. His words awakened something inside me that was previously unknown…I __**had**__ hated my own mother for some abstract reason. _

_Belial was not finished, not even close._

"_The war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness has never held significant cause, never was there a reason for the divine conflict. There was diversity and there was hatred towards the unknown, neither faction ever committed some great atrocity that started the fighting as you children have been led to believe. This one cannot teach you all that he is learned, for that you must find my father."_

_He grabbed me by the hem of my robes and hurled me into the pit with great strength, sending me plummeting into what felt like oblivion. At the time, I hadn't known my destination as I do now. This realm harbors a level of darkness far surpassing any that I have ever met; there is no sky or earth, only black clouds forming solid beneath my feet as I walk upon them. Above there is a dead sun, glowing like a faint ember with it's light being swallowed whole by the mist below it. This is the nature of Tartarus, the ninth circle of Hell, the most infernal of all worlds and home to the gods of the underworld. _

_Belial was right though, all is not as I've been told down here. I was told this was a place where apocalypse was eternal and the exiled emperor of Hell spread his corrupting fire like disease. I have found neither to be true. There is civilization here, large settlements of the most powerful demons I have ever seen. I talk to them, ask them why they won't leave and lend their strength to the war effort but they only tell me the exact words that Belial said about a week ago. _

_In this short amount of time it would seem that the denizens here have taken a liking to me, even a few of the gods have conversed with me. They are friendly and sit in a circle amongst the strongest demons around a large fire pit dug into the gaseous earth, they never move from that spot and only stare vacantly into the flames when not speaking. It's unnerving to be around them for too long so I had decided to ask a few of the elder demons of where I might find Belial's father. Many did not answer and looked shamefully to the ground until I came across one known as Astaroth, another of the many fallen angels scattered about this place._

_I have learned…that this is where demons go to escape the fighting, to truly abandon all hope and live in a certain deathly peace most unlike what I found in the frozen north of the eighth circle. _

_Astaroth stood from his position by the fire and beckoned me to follow him into the black depths of the ninth realm. A day's worth of travel brought us to a staircase stretching to a distance that looked to be beyond the decaying sun and into infinity. My demon guide left me without another direction, carrying a somber air about his person. At this moment, I felt somewhat afraid of what Belial may have asked of me but only hesitated an hour before climbing for half a day up the floating stone and reaching the summit as fast as the legs Kikyou gave me could run. _

_Passing several archways of time-worn rock, I entered the apex, a circular platform with a throne in the middle. Intricate designs of deceased gods and devils littered the floor as well as characters I recognized as binding seals from the small amount of magick my mother used to teach me. _

_There was a man sitting upon the throne in the center of the levitating structure, acting as a center of gravity to broken stone pillars that orbited through the air lazily at the position next to the dead sun. He was impossibly handsome, and equally powerful. He wears ancient armor upon his chest with robes as red as blood flowing like water from underneath them. His hair was long and black like the empty cosmos around him and he seemed amused that I was staring at him with such profound admiration. _

_Being so captivated by him, I did not notice the even stronger aura emerge from behind him. The head of a red dragon looked at me wearily through the dark clouds, eying me lazily but feeling as if he was penetrating all my immortal elements with just one glance. In an instant, it vanished once more behind the smog while the demon in front of me rose from his seat with unmatched grace while the chains of the shackled dragon slid away into the darkness. A pair of skeletal wings hung lifelessly from his back, looking as if they would disintegrate into bone and bits of powdered flesh with the small portions of gray membrane that still sat like tattered cloth upon the rigid base of the abused appendages. _

_He is Belial's father and another fallen angel; he has yet to tell me his name and only answers to the "Day Star". The one behind him calls himself by what he designates as To Mega Therion, a name I have never heard before. They have barred me from exiting their small domain and keep from escaping by unbreakable barriers. Both studied me for several days until a few hours ago when they told me their intentions, they have selected me as the heir of their legacy. I am not sure what this means and I regret seeking the day star out by my own accord. They tell me that they will craft me into a being that can conquer the universe, learn a million ways to burn Heaven down to Hell, and make an ultimate weapon of my own body._

_I have no choice but to accept, and the results do sound attractive but I am uncertain of what will happen from here. My "training" starts today and I have never felt so much fear before. _

_I'm glad I had this book with me when I fell into the ninth gate, I might have gone insane._

_

* * *

_

Year 79,106 of the Yomi Era

_I've neglected this journal for so long that it feels like a crime, I have only recently gained enough time to engage in leisurely activities. _

_My training has been the hardest I have ever known, father had never shown me any tests such as what I have endured here in the ninth circle. The first three centuries was a constant haze of pain; the Day Star beats me without mercy and not so much as a breath leaving from his lips before landing a thousand punches to my face. It almost makes me miss days spent home alone with my elder brother…well maybe a little more than "almost"._

_I'm having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that the Day Star fathered someone as humble as Belial; his mother must have been the purest creature to have ever existed. Now that I am finished with the first phase of "making my body invulnerable", my training is divided into two different parts. The Day Star teaches me through physical means while Therion-heika as he has asked me to call him, instructs me through the mind. He imparts me with ancient knowledge of strong magick and intelligence spanning throughout the known universe in conjunction with many, many more powerful abilities. _

_Despite the brutal means of acquiring all this power, I have to admit that it is an incredible feeling to increase my strength so rapidly. I can feel my natural growth speed up as well, must be a side-effect from all the physical development I've been going through. But one thing I do not approve of is the alterations being inflicted upon my mind, Therion-heika has given me his rather bleak philosophy; that all life is pointless and every being exists only to destroy. It is…frightening to find myself thinking such things, I sometimes still find that old hatred for my mother buried deep inside of me. After I have met so many fallen angels, I still cannot accept her. _

_Why is this? _

_I should stop; I'm angering myself again…_

_

* * *

_

Year 80,772 of the Yomi Era

_My training has been going well; I feel the strength of Tartarus passing into me with every passing day. Today I have finally perfected the arcane technique known as light-touch maneuvering. It is an ability that maps the terrain beneath my feet, using waves of dark aura as a sort of sonar and constantly keeps me hovering the slightest distance above the ground. Pushing energy to my feet and blasting it outwards towards the resistance of whatever lay beneath me, I can move at a speed I could never have imagined but that is not where the footwork gets its name. Using the same energy and contacting the ground with a specific part of my foot, I can change direction with agility rivaling the Nemean Lion._

_If I am to continue learning things of this nature then I will surely surpass any demon in the eighth circle by the end of the age. _

_I wish to document more of my progress but Therion-heika condemns me for keeping record of his secrets._

…

_He has been tainting my mind; I can feel it and so can the Day Star. _

Inuyasha sighed heavily and paused his reading to scratch Kilala, who was now sleeping comfortably in his lap, softly behind her ears. He would have to read through the defining point in his life next, that much he knew he couldn't avoid. It seemed right to rekindle his old memories after so long, even if it brought the old suffering along with it.

The inu-youkai released a quick breath and looked up at the eclipsed sun which had only recently started its slow descent over the ashen-forested plains of the western quadrant. His family would be returning soon to spend the night in peace and most likely talk around the fire pit as they so often did on nights not spent at battle. But until then, he watched the sapphire flames dance across the tree branches encompassing his position for only a moment before skipping a multitude of entries and delving once again into his past.

__

Year 130,004 of the Yomi Era

_I feel like death…_

_I feel like I could slay a million gods with a flick of my wrist. _

_I was prematurely excused from my training earlier today. The Day Star does disagrees with what Therion-heika has been teaching me, he says that with a black mind and a degree of power fit for the most powerful of demons that I might herald Armageddon. Of course the red dragon laughed at him, cursed him for not holding the level of resentment towards the universe that he once shared with him. They argued amongst themselves before coming to a weak consensus: I am to leave and recollect myself before returning at least five hundred thousand years from now. I'm angry but I cannot argue with the one's I have accepted as my second and third fathers. _

_Therion-heika wishes me sooner; he tells me that with only a black mind, my training is only a third of the way complete. He says that to be perfect I must also possess a black heart and soul as well; these are things that I desire. _

_The Day Star wants me to reconcile with my family, I cannot admit with a clear conscience that I am certain why. All I was told was that it might do me well in my endeavors; I can't see how. I will stay with Belial until the time comes for me to return to Tartarus, I feel that I belong between these two places. _

_I'm standing outside of a portal I made to the eighth circle as I write this, I just want to breathe a little more of the black vapors before that winter air invades my lungs. _

…

_There isn't much more to say other than I finally learned the true names of my masters. The Day Star, my second father is named Lucifer while Therion-heika, my third father calls himself Samael. But he says that that is his slave name given to him by the demons that imprisoned him so long ago. He prefers Satan, rightful emperor of Hell and the first black trinity to ever know the universe. To Mega Therion is only another name he chose for himself out of thousands to introduce himself as…he wants me to take over for him. He told me this without Lucifer's knowing._

_I want to speak with Belial about all this, see what he can infer about it. The devil of the northern quadrant should be able to make a bit of sense over this._

_

* * *

_

Year 130,004 of the Yomi Era

_I returned back to the frozen north early this morning, unexpectedly meeting Belial in the same chamber where I had entered Tartarus as a child only fifty thousand years ago. Lucifer must have informed him of my departure, it seems like something he would do. How strange that the first of the fallen had been so protective over a little youkai boy such as myself. _

_Belial comments about my accelerated growth and the development of a black mind as well as my new powers. He seems distraught by my metamorphosis, I tried to enter his thoughts to discover why but he turns out to be a brilliant telepath. Nevertheless, Belial carries that air of humility about him and did not remain uneasy for too long. We talked as equals for several hours, less constricted than I remember from the last time I conversed with him. His intelligence is astounding, I can see the teachings of his father through his eyes but they seem to be somewhat modified._

_Unsurprisingly, he still retains the philosophy of strict pacifism and hasn't entered the war effort. I asked him why he hadn't joined the others in Tartarus and chose to remain here in isolation. Belial seemed to have practiced the answer of this question for some time. "I remain in the eighth circle not only to maintain the gate to the ninth realm but to escape being branded a coward. Yet there is an additional reason; if I were to leave, my daughter would surely follow. Joining the forsaken soldiers and gods that inhabit Tartarus is a choice made by an individual, it is not for Kikyou. As you know, the scent of wildflowers only lasts so long in the blackness. My wife and children were all executed by angels only a decade or so after she was born, we were devastated as you might be able to imagine. And even though the fires of vengeance in my heart could melt all the ice in my homeland, I realized that the only way to protect her was to vanish into the blizzards." _

_It came as a shock to me, to know that he had lost so much. I suppose that I was deceived by his benign nature into believing that no wrong had ever reached his frozen castle. And so he has made the north into free lands where there is no definite sovereignty, it is placid and no one seeks to overthrow his distant rule. Maybe I would still consider taking residence here. I'll think about it until the New Year, that's about a month or so ahead of me. _

…

_There is one more thing I wish to record._

_I passed by her room on the way to my bedchamber tonight, she hadn't heard of my arrival at the time. I caught her singing some wondrous hymn and couldn't help but to see if she had changed at all from what I remember her as. _

_No, she is still a remarkably pure entity, carrying a light aura around her frame. She was twirling a bellflower in between her thumb and forefinger as I entered her room unannounced, humming to herself a simplistic melody amidst a sea of azure blossoms._

Snow is falling, now, now  
Hail is falling, now, now  
Falling, falling  
Flies up high with hail and snow.  
Snow white cotton caps  
All the hills and fields are wearing,  
On the bare old trees the little  
Snow flowers are in bloom.

_I had been standing behind her; certain that she had sensed me enter and merely decided to entertain me for whatever reason she may have fancied. It was not so, she shrieked like a banshee when I kneeled down beside her and clapped her hand to her chest as if she had been struck. _

_Even for a life without training, her abilities must be poorly honed to be reduced to such levels of unawareness. _

_Much to my satisfaction, she didn't flee from me as she would the times when I used to meet her outside her father's company. Kikyou has…grown, she still appears older than me for some odd reason but that is not why I pause. My father used to tell me that every woman I would ever meet would leave an impression on me, some as lasting as a faint ripple on a vast ocean while others like a strong hammer on a fragile stone. In her case however, I had found myself a brittle urn facing a meteorite._ _She has been transformed into a woman of such pure beauty that it seems like a visage. _

_I must have stared at her for some time because she shied away from my eyes and returned to her gardening without so much as a hint of wanting my absence. We stayed silent for several minutes until she commented on how much I had changed, keeping her gaze solely focused on the blossoms scattered about her room. Hesitantly and maybe a bit warily, I remarked on the same. She blushed heavily when I complimented her appearance and hid her face amongst the plants. _

_Her room was awkward but comfortable as we sat wordlessly, admiring the vast amounts of diverse foliage finding a home in her bedchamber. It wasn't long until we struck up conversation again, discussing the changes in the last fifty thousand years on a personal level. Kikyou had asked me what I had been doing with my time in the ninth circle and foolishly I began telling her, forgetting of her delicacy. She often brought her fingers to her lips to stifle a gasp once I began going on a tangent pertaining to my rather merciless training. I stopped myself once she had looked about to faint, changing into the more favorable subject of her room._

_This seemed to return what semblance of color lay under the fair skin of her face as she fluttered her lashes and started speaking whimsically of her garden. We moved under the shade of a nearby cherry blossom that filtered dappled torchlight, stretching almost to the top of the vaulted ceiling. I was surprised that I had never grown tired of her speaking as I did with most people, maybe it was just the softness of her voice. _

_She asked me if I would like to here her sing once more before she retired to bed. _

_I accepted without hesitation and was immediately rewarded by the sound of her voice streaming subtle notes while she tended once more to her bellflowers. After only a few minutes of leaning against the bark of Kikyou's tree while watching the pink petals spiral down, her song had brought the weight of fifty thousand years of sleepless nights upon my eyes. _

_The last thing I saw before slipping into my first sleep in millennia was Kikyou turn and smile towards me with the luminosity of a benevolent fire._

_I woke up later in the same position, still in her room. Kikyou was asleep in her bed adjacent to my location. She had trusted me enough to leave me unattended in her private sanctuary, perhaps she still thinks of me as that little boy from the snow storm. _

_And so I write this entry from a high branch of Kikyou's cherry blossom, overlooking her slumbering form below me._

_

* * *

_

Year 130,004 of the Yomi Era

_It is an odd thing to be acquainted with someone on such a personal level, yet comforting as well to know that I have not only one but two people to confide into wholly. _

_It's been two weeks since my last entry and equal time remains until the New Year._

_My relations with Belial and Kikyou are progressing well; they treat me as family and only rarely prod about returning me to my homeland. That's fine because I have little intention to ever see them again even if my ill thoughts of them have mostly dissolved since running away all that time ago. Maybe it's Kikyou, she too is the offspring of a former fallen angel and a youkai; talking with her about the past has effectively dispersed the resentment I once harbored towards my mother. _

_We have become friends of a sort, she and I. I wouldn't know if that is the correct term or not, I have never felt drawn to someone enough to call them anything more than a fleeting outlet for communication. Often we walk through the snow-covered courtyards and admire the beauty of Hell's frozen north together, strolling silently with words unneeded. Though the times in which we do converse are just as rewarding, she is more knowledgeable of the world than I could have thought one such as isolated from it as her would have been; of course she is her father's daughter. _

_She has really changed drastically from the shy girl that I once barely knew; Kikyou has welcomed me into her company fairly easy this time around and has yet to lock herself in her room to escape my presence. I see her blush quite often which is such a humorous sight for both me and Belial, nary a compliment of mine leaves my lips without provoking a flush of her cheeks. She tries to play it off as the cold when we sit together on one of the many veranda's surrounding the castle but I know just as well as she does that her body has been born with natural immunity to such things. Making her blush…It's become somewhat of a pastime for me while eliciting a smile is still my favorite hobby ever since the night I spent sleeping in her garden. _

_Everything of her still reminds me of snow, tall and elegant like the very expectancy of a lady from noble descent calls for. Still, she can grow distant out in the blizzards and cut the ties from her black hair so that all of it might be taken by the wind. I wonder if she mourns for her family, I wonder if they valued her smile just as much as I do. _

_Kikyou sits in front of me now, at the small tea table in my bedroom where we had first met after she had saved my body from the storm. As she trusts me around her garden, I do the same with my writing. _

_It is a good relationship._

_

* * *

_

Year 130,004 of the Yomi Era

_It's the day before the start of the New Year; the three of us will celebrate in what little way we can. Belial is fermenting wine next to me, using black grapes grown from Kikyou's garden. He will most likely not mix it with angel blood as father so often did but that is a small price to pay for acquiring a __**real**__ family. _

_Belial has just started to boost the aging process, it should be ready by nightfall. I never drank much as a child, even if the silver blood did appeal to my senses, the act itself was never an occasion such as this. Maybe I will be able to enjoy Hell's native product as it was meant to be this time around. It certainly feels like a holiday this year instead of the ones spent training back in Tartarus. _

_I have kept my meager promise I made a month ago and decided against following Lucifer's wishes and not returning to my family. He will most likely forgive me, I'm sure I've earned at least one favor from him after so many of his beatings. Satan will probably remain indifferent over the entire situation, never had he showed any concern over anything but my education and mental corruption, something that has waned slightly since exiting the ninth circle…he must be furious. But I shouldn't let such things get to me now, not when I am to spend the night overlooking the frozen plains with Belial at my left, Kikyou at my right, and a glass of wine to hold me to the scenery._

_Yes, I think the New Year should work out quite well for us._

_I will continue this entry later, after helping with the miniscule amount of preparations for our night of celebration._

_**...**_

_It is humorous to look back on what I wrote only a few hours ago and see how correct I was with my presumptions. My seating arrangement is just as I had described, perhaps Satan had given me the power of precognition without my knowing. I write in between gazes cast outwards towards the frozen north and sips of the most exquisite wine I have tasted. The three of us are silent now and watch the cosmos, something only visible here in the moonless quadrant. Stars and nebulae are something foreign to me, I have never seen such beautiful things come from the upwards direction of Heaven. _

_Clouds of interstellar gas light the sky above me in deep vermilions and indigos, reflecting mirror images from the sheeted ice below the veranda. It is as if the three of us sit suspended in space, such a beautiful scene. To think that I now live in a world where my eyes are treated to grave nearly every day, I could wish very little for my life at this moment._

…

_I'm going to have to end this entry, Kikyou has offered to sing for us and I would loathe being disrespectful towards her voice by continuing._

_

* * *

_

Year 130,005 of the Yomi Era

_I suppose that I can admit to some degree of confusion…and also quite a bit of surprise._

_It is only about eight hours since my last entry, past the start of the New Year. _

_Kikyou and I had been walking together after Belial bade us goodnight, headed towards our rooms which lay only a small distance apart. We had strolled through the courtyards as routine would have it and proceeded towards the corridor in which held our chambers. It was there that we shared a chaste goodnight under the feint torchlight, overtaken by a comfortable aura about the two of us. She moved her head towards mine and planted her lips so delicately upon my cheek as if to leave the feeling of a warm breath on my skin._

_This attention was so unprecedented that I was left speechless and gazed into her tea-colored eyes with what must have looked like the expression of a man who had been so horribly shocked that he was rendered mute. Neither of us moved; I felt the paralysis in my legs not unlike the instance when I discovered my mother's true heritage. The flambeaus still cast their light over us like some subtle intervention, highlighting her blush and my awkwardness. _

_Belial's wine must've emboldened me substantially for I brought her to me with my arms around her waist and took her lips by mine without thinking. I could feel her face grow in heat from the fingers I had placed gently upon her chin, obviously catching her by even surprise as I held her so passionately. Never had I felt such a rush of sensation from anything so simple; standing there in the dimly lit hall with Kikyou in my embrace, it felt so frighteningly belonging. _

_We stayed as such, oscillating our lips slowly in lengthy patterns for a moment that seemed to last a thousand lifetimes. It was not until minutes later that we finally broke our kiss, remaining locked in a tender wrap of arms with our foreheads resting upon themselves softly and swaying temperately in tune to the comforting flames dancing across the walls. I recall that we had sought each other's mouths nearly half of a dozen times afterwards, maintaining that mellow, wordless nature._

_When we had released our embrace, I met her eyes once more and could not help but feel a wave of warmth pass through my body. Kikyou held her gaze to the marble floor, blushing heavily and fluttering her lashes prettily while relocating stray fibers of black hair from her face. And she had the most wondrous smile spread across her lips, the kind that made my knees melt below the skin. _

_Knowing nothing more to do, we quietly restated our goodnights and scrambled into the solitude of our bedchambers. I find it humorous, all the strange effects she has on me, only now beginning to surface into coherent thoughts. Even now as I write this, I can state without a semblance of a lie that I still feel as if I am suspended in the clouds. Never has my body given me this sensation, perhaps it was her body and not mine. _

_I cannot wait to see her in the morning. _

_

* * *

_

Year 130,005 of the Yomi Era

_It has been little over a month since my last entry; I have been rather busy since then and haven't had much of a chance to write. _

_Kikyou and I spend nearly every waking moment in each other's arms, sharing our lips and inner-most secrets with one another. It is such a happy existence, living with this woman who had destroyed and rebuilt me all in one smile. She says that I have started taking on the scent of wildflowers from all the time I have spent nuzzled in her company, something I would most certainly welcome. _

_We have started sharing her bed only a few days ago unbeknownst to her father, at least from the naivety he openly exhibits. I have fully accepted the frozen north as my home, there is no doubt that this is where I want to spend the rest of eternity, here in this place where there is no fighting, no suffering, nothing but us and only us. As long as I can wake in the morning with the most beautiful of creatures nestled in between my arms and breathe the scent of her hair until kissing her out from slumber, I will never need anything else for the rest of existence. _

_Though it has only been two and a half months since meeting again, it feels as if we have known each other since birth, like we were destined to seek each other's presence around our own. I renounce my family, I renounce my training, I renounce the campaign against the angels, and there is no cause great enough to drive me from her company. Satan must despise me but I imagine that Belial and Lucifer might find some comfort in knowing that I have given up becoming Hell's legacy. _

_There is no need for war when my soul is at peace with the woman I love._

…

_Kikyou is waking, I should hope she will share what intentions I have for us._

_

* * *

_

Year 130,005 of the Yomi Era

_I am pleased to announce to whichever entity dwells within this journal that Kikyou and I are to be bonded later today by means of Belial's consent. _

_Such is it that she will become my wife, what my fourth father calls a female demon mate who sparks insurmountable amounts of love and affection from her male. This is all could have ever desired and more, that I might share a union with my beloved and start a family free from the corruption of the outside conflict. The three of us have not ceased smiling since we had set the date a week ago, drinking every night out on the veranda in continuous celebration._

_To think that I might have such a beautiful woman as Kikyou to call my wife is nothing short of fantasy. _

_This woman I love…I'll protect her with my life until the end of infinity._

Inuyasha brought his face to the journal and sighed heavily into the pages, he was sure he would have been crying had all his tears not been lost with the death of his wife. He brought himself quickly back into composure when Kilala stirred in the center of his lap and rolled onto her back, prompting him to meet the eclipsed sun as it finally fell below the horizon. Twilight would soon leave and the demons that inhabited the burning forest would most likely come in search of fresh blood.

The inu-youkai could easily slaughter whatever abomination the woods threw at him but he long ago learned that engaging in combat when he was in such a "damaged" state was not wise.

He would have to finish up his business now and leave quickly before he did something foolish. Inuyasha faced downwards sullenly and scanned his eyes across the angrily scribbled characters below.

_Year 130,011 of the Yomi Era_

_It has been exactly six years since she had left me, robbed from existence by unjust murder and only now have I the courage to record the events that have transpired since my previous entry. Looking back to such a happy time…it makes me ill._

_I will begin at the point of our union._

_Kikyou and I had been the epitome of perfect lovers, never was that more apparent than our wedding day at the northern castle. We had stood atop the veranda overlooking the frozen plains in the midst of night, catching a small snow drift that only added to the emotion that hung in the air. Our love permeated the atmosphere like a powerful fragrance, heady and intoxicating, immortal and undying or so we thought. We had exchanged our vows with heavy smiles and crushed each other's lips so hard that I feared her body might shatter. _

_Belial had given us his best wine to drink in celebration and so we did without hesitation until Kikyou offered to sing for us as she so often did when she was happy. I can still remember the lyrics to this day; I think them to be seared into my flesh along with her smile._

Listen to my voice calling you  
Calling you out of darkness  
Hear the devils cry of sin  
Always turn your back on him

With the wind you go and still  
I dream of your spirit leading you back home  
I will give my gifts to you  
While you're gone and watching on

The light in your eyes  
An angel of dark  
Lighting to ease the shadows' sight  
Hearts will grow, the heavens will play  
Leaving behind the things in the end

Listen to my voice calling you  
Calling you out of darkness  
Hear the devils cry of sin  
Always turn your back on him

_Hearing these words with her voice drift through my thoughts yet again nearly draw more tears from my eyes. _

_It was late in the night, in her bedchamber. We were drunk off our own happiness, ready to make love for the first time. Kikyou had been previously untouched by a man, something that pleased me greatly and something that I curse now. It was that fear in her eyes that started it, I remember…that fear, that uncertainty. The black mind which had been imparted to me from Satan had been activated after four months of dormancy from leaving Tartarus. _

_As I entered her, I saw the pain and discomfort play across her face like a plague. I knew I should have stopped, even ran away but I was foolish. It was when that lone tear escaped her eye that I lost myself to the black mind. It was the vow of protecting her and seeing the pain I was causing her mixing into a paradox, it drove me insane, drove me into a state where all I wanted was for her to feel no pain, to stay remain the delicate little flower that I had fallen in love with. _

_I must have been truly insane; I began slashing at her waist with my claws, only growing more enraged by the sounds of her screams. Before I knew what I had been doing, she lay strewn across me in ribbons of flesh. _

_I felt like I was going to vomit when her soul passed through me and ascended to heaven to face judgment. I knew she would fall victim to their genocide if I didn't stop the angels. Stricken with grief and rage, I met Belial in his chamber and informed him with tearstained eyes of what happened to his only daughter, how I had killed my wife on the eve of our union. Never could I imagine how I must have looked to him, naked, coated with blood, red-eyed, and perhaps my stripes had turned black by that time, I'm not sure. All I know is that he feared me initially, feared how feral I was and how I was transforming into an abomination_

_Perhaps I asked his forgiveness first, either that or his help in rescuing her from Heaven's inevitable execution. There were tales of how they managed to do it, capturing the souls of slain demons and their dark energy in conjunction with their own light auras to neutralize the immortal souls of any being they deemed an enemy which was most certainly any demon they did not put to use by sending their own kind into oblivion. I refused to allow either fate befall Kikyou, she was much too pure for those outcomes._

_Belial opened a portal immediately without question and motioned me to enter only after properly clothing me. He refused to come with me and enraged me beyond belief at his choice to stand idly by when his only surviving child faced annihilation. "It makes no difference whether I join you or not, she will survive if the universe wills it so. My presence there changes nothing, it is best for only you to go. A fallen angel such as myself has no business returning to Heaven and I would additionally refuse to slay any opposition. My sword has been forever sheathed." That is what he said to me and what made me all the more responsible for whether or not Kikyou lived or died._

_I entered without further hesitation, emerging in a place with air so pure that it burned my lungs. Heaven, such a vile place, never should any demon be condemned to endure the torture of its toxic environment._

_So I began murdering, slaughtering every winged creature I came in contact with until more blood lay outside my body than within it. I remember how my heart jumped when I caught the scent of wildflowers amidst the smell of plumage. Plunging my claws through the hearts of countless seraphs, I proceeded through the unfamiliar architecture until stumbling wildly into an annex where the scent was strongest. _

_Kikyou lay there, suspended from the ceiling by hooks sinking into her flesh and cradling her spine. I could feel her pain, her tears, all the fear radiate outwards from her being. Then the energies started filtering through the building and draining into her body, I remember how she gave me the most sincere smile I had ever seen before slipping into nonexistence._

_I have never understood that bloody smile, not after even six years and maybe even a million. _

_Something broke inside me when I saw her body hanging empty from the rafters, devoid of a soul, free of spirit and eternally deceased. I felt like death, I felt like burning myself along with her into oblivion but I was halted abruptly when I found myself back inside the eighth circle. _

_Belial stood facing me with some unidentifiable expression, I thought he would kill me. He did not, he didn't even say one word laced with malevolence. My fourth father only put his hand upon my shoulder and apologized, apologized to the man who had murdered his daughter. Somehow…it made me feel so much worse than if he had cursed me and spat at my face. I fell to my knees and sank my claws repeatedly into the ground until they broke to pieces, only to regenerate immediately. _

_My father carried me outside and sat me down atop the snow, leaving me to watch as he began digging. After only an hour, he had made a suitable grave and lay a coffin inside the plot. He instructed me to fill it with whichever article I deemed necessary to remember her by. _

_I stared at him in disbelief. _

_Belial seemed entirely indifferent, no emotion external or internal passed across my senses, he was like a corpse. I watched him leave, walk into the castle without looking back and stared into the grave. Inside the black casket there lay in the center, a single bellflower. That was all he had placed, I knew he expected more from me but I wasn't sure what. I did the only thing that I thought Kikyou deserved, I climbed into the grave and cried. I cried like a child for hours and began tearing violently at my own flesh, this was the first time I saw my black blood. My intentions were to kill myself and suffer an equal fate alongside my beloved wife but it seemed impossible. The blood was endless, I couldn't die, and I had become a black trinity. My heart and soul were corrupted by both murders of my wife and so I thought that Satan might have been laughing because he had finally gotten my perfection._

_I bled and cried until the coffin was filled to the brim with the remnants of my agony, I could not cry any more tears so I focused and converting all my effort to ending my own existence._

_It was then that Belial stormed out from the castle, his normally placid face stricken with rage. He grabbed me by the neck and struck my face as only Lucifer's son could, hurling insults at me as my bones shattered under his fists. I thought, I hoped he would kill me but he didn't, he wasn't even angry at the reason I had hoped for. No, Belial was infuriated by the fact that I had tried to join my wife. _

"_Any coward could commit such a thing, you take it to be an act of love?! It takes a real man to live through his sorrow and bear the pain throughout his life, that is what I had learned after the death of her mother and siblings. There is no glory in pointless sacrifice. What would Kikyou think of this pitiful, lachrymose boy lying in her grave and tainting her favorite flower with his putrid blood? A being as pure as fresh-fallen snow would abhor such things and you know that, don't you?"_

_I was amazed, not only at the anger he exhibited but also the truth of his words. Killing myself was a coward's solution and I am no coward. _

_Belial bid me farewell the next day with a smile, I didn't even ask why. All I was concerned with was getting away and I only had one place that would have me. I went home as fast as I could, taking only an hour at my increased speed resulting from the transformation. _

_I remember what Satan taught me about the immortal elements, how they functioned with different levels of corruption and purity._

_Heart: the body and internal organs, the vessel of the soul and mind. A tainted black heart will change the outward appearance of the body as well as one cleansed into whiteness; my black stripes and blood are evidence of this. It has also bestowed me with increased physical capacity and several other unique abilities pertaining to the abysmal nature of my transformation. _

_Mind: the immortal element that documents information given by the brain and central nervous system; like the soul, it has no physical presence. Corruption of the mind is what led me to kill my wife and eventually complete the black trinity. It has contaminated and warped my thoughts…or maybe what I think nowadays is simply normal for someone like me. _

_Soul: the invulnerable element and the basis of existence, it is what keeps us alive once our hearts and minds perish with death. Angels have been so underhanded as to neutralize the souls of demons and take them out of existence when we have no bodies to defend ourselves with. My kind would never take on such a cowardly form of genocide; demons are traditionalists and corrupt the gods and angels into joining our ranks through internal energy manipulation. Levels of corruption and purity within the soul dictate the inherent strength of our auras, more powerful as they stray further from the edge of neutrality. _

_These are only the abridged versions of what I have learned through his lessons. _

…

_I'm leading away from the story again, some things will never change._

_My welcoming home was not what I had expected, quite the opposite really for everyone except for mother. She acted as she always had and embraced me tightly upon my entry while father seemed somewhat indifferent, he had most likely figured that I would return eventually. Sesshoumaru and Akkiyoru's reactions were what really took me by surprise, they actually apologized sincerely apologized to me in front of mother and father for mistreating me as a child. I wonder if they thought that that was why I had initially run away, no matter, I really just don't care._

_The four of them seem to be shocked by what I have become in only fifty thousand years, never had they seen a black trinity other than Azhi Dahaka. Mother seems to fear me now while Sesshoumaru and his mother look at me as if I would melt them with my blood at any instance. Father is the only one who pretends not to notice that my magenta stripes have been tainted black._

_He had given me his sword, the Tetsusaiga upon the night of my homecoming. His weapon has been replaced by the newly-forged Tenseiga, a sword that contains opposite levels of black and white energy. Father has yet to tell me how he acquired it, most likely he never will. _

_My family seems to be functional now…_

_Even Akkiyoru and my mother have been getting along splendidly; the latter had admitted that they often engaged in leisurely intercourse together. _

_There are some things I would rather be oblivious to. _

_Sesshoumaru seems to have taken a liking to this succubus wench from the south, she seems to suit him well. Her status is good enough for him. _

_The future isn't so clear anymore, and I feel delirious after so much remembrance; I see after re-reading this entry that my penmanship has suffered considerably as well. _

…

_I can't live in a universe where the innocent perish while the truly evil are gifted with supreme invulnerability. Such was it that my beloved had perished under me and the angels, neither should be alive. But if Belial will not let me die than I will gain at least half her vengeance. My training will continue with myself as the mentor, there will come a time when I can destroy the worlds and rebuild space and time into a suitable environment where things function as they should. _

_Until then, I suppose I'll just bide my time._

Inuyasha slammed his journal shut and willed it mentally back into his room at the castle, storing it safely where no one would think to find it. He lifted his nekomata familiar from his lap and began surveying the surroundings around him. Crimson moonlight clashed with sapphire flames for dominance over the terrain, creating an eerie mix of contrasting colors in the forest clearing, sending thin shadows sprawling about on the rocky ground. Sounds of nocturnal beasts filtered through the trees, sounding as a choir of growls that came from unseen origins through the burning vegetation.

He would have to leave soon if he truly wished to avoid confrontation.

"Mew?"

The inu-youkai cocked an eyebrow and stared at Kilala with a matter-of-factly expression dancing across his features. "No," he announced as if he was turning an idea over back and forth in his thoughts. "I wish to fly back to the castle; it should be easy on my mind as well as your stomach." He paused for a moment as blazing red eyes shot through the treeline in all directions, appearing as hot coals in between the fire. "Shall we?" The nekomata purred in agreement and shed her kitten form in exchange for the saber-toothed hellcat body that shot flames in all directions as it roared in triumph.

She watched as her master nodded in approval before flaring up his black aura to its maximum, causing the black markings below his eyes to grow until they coated his entire body. He fell to all fours and let his fangs lengthen to an impossible size, a cloud of dark vapor swirling around him until he became lost in the whirlwind as only a silhouette which grew rapidly behind the macabre shroud.

As the vortex settled, a large black-furred dog rose from the diffusing mists, it's pointed canine ears listening as the creatures of the forest quickly retreated into the night.

"_Let's go, this place now carries the stench of vermin."_

Both transformed youkai bounded into a running start and vaulted into the air, catching the winds and sailing into the blackened skies. Inuyasha was forced to slow himself considerably to allow his familiar to keep by his side, yet it made no difference to him. He wanted this reprieve to think, to remember all that had made him what he was since the beginning. Never had he run away from the past, the memories just seemed to elude him from time to time; most likely his black mind trying to purge the weakness they carried from his thoughts for eternity.

But Inuyasha didn't want to forget, he wanted to live with the pain as his fourth father had asked of him. Every so often he notice the coldness and the space left unfilled on his bed and the memories would come surging back. There was never sadness, maybe a quick mourning but all his tears had been buried in Kikyou's grave.

Inuyasha brought thoughts of his obliterated wife all the way to the capital city of the western plains, paying no attention as he thrust open the iron gates which had now started to feel familiar to him, making his way up the winding igneous pathways until reaching the door.

He moved inside with Kilala by his robes and left the memory of Kikyou on the opposite end of the entrance, drifting further from him as Hell's midnight winds tore it to pieces.

**

* * *

**

Author's Note:

Is this not the longest chapter of anything you have ever read, most italics? Be honest. If I confused you in any way or you just have some questions, drop me a message and don't forget to REVIEW!

Heika – Japanese honorific reserved for a high ruling class

Day Star is the translation of Lucifer's name.

To Mega Therion is greek for "the great beast" and Samael is Satan's angel name in some sects.

And yes, in some religions Lucifer and Satan are separate entities. One is the eternal master of Hell while the other was the first of the fallen angels.

In other news, I'm sorry that this took so long. AP homework and a certain member of my family who has terminal cancer has taken away most of my time. Forgive my lateness.

But on a lighter note, did anyone else get a Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal vibe from this chapter? Maybe it was just the snow and the romance but I always thought of it when writing this.

Oh, one more thing…HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


	6. To Taste the Blood of Christ

Navigating warily through the dimly lit hallways, dodging scurrying servants and every manner of western hellish décor, Inuyasha tore swiftly through his castle in search of his family. Kilala had hopped off as he entered the main chamber and undoubtedly retired to bed for the evening, leaving her master to pursue his endeavors alone. Unable to grab a hold on their energy signatures, he darted into a maze of narrow corridors until finding himself in an area of the castle where no outside occupants littered the premises.

"You're late…"

The force of the familiar voice slowed Inuyasha's pace as he grinded to a halt in front of a shadowed figure leaning casually against the wall. Crimson torchlight rebounded extravagantly from Sesshoumaru's silver mane while he pushed lightly away from his lazy pose and met his brother with a cocked eyebrow. "No matter, however. We've only just returned from the city below, quite an interesting place if you ever find yourself in need of quick entertainment," he denounced candidly, pleased to see that his younger sibling was no longer in the "damaged" state that led him to be so distraught earlier in the day. Sesshoumaru gestured haggardly towards a door to the right of his position, a sliver of light breaking through the bottom and driving back a small amount of the darkness about the dismal hall.

Inuyasha paused outside of the entrance, listening to the medley of voices that he had grown so accustomed to over the years come from within. "They continue the tradition of having wine in the foyer, do they?" he asked blandly, shying away from the brass handle and taking up a cross-armed lean upon the doorframe. Sesshoumaru partially closed the small distance between the two as his younger brother seemed to show no sign of hurrying, maintaining a comfortable atmosphere between the two.

"We would appreciate it if you would join us; they know well enough that you don't drink anymore," the elder inu-youkai stated hopefully, casting an expectant gaze over to the shrouded figure blocking the way. "You never did inform us why you stopped." Inuyasha panned his vision upwards from the floor until his eyes rested squarely on an identical pair, locking into a moderate stare. "I can't make a flavor of the wine; it may as well turn to ash in my mouth." However, despite his steadfast resistance, Inuyasha clasped his hand around the door handle and held it open next to him as to block the view from those inside.

Sesshoumaru gave his brother an inquisitive glare but nonetheless walked into the inviting air of the foyer albeit with a moment's hesitation. He relaxed when Inuyasha followed him through instead of slamming the door and absconding to some remote corner of the universe. The room was a comely one, a much more cozy area on the comparative scale of many of the castle's larger features. Plush furniture was arranged in a semi-circle around a great hearth in the center, spitting out dull embers from the flames inside with low cracks. It was burning a scented wood, releasing a heavy, sweet smelling smoke that was not sensitive enough to be considered overpowering by the inu-youkai. Most likely, it was wood from an acacia found in the desert wastelands of the southern quadrant and brought as a sort of housewarming gift for the new lords of the west.

The foyer and its many inhabitants offered a myriad of welcoming sounds as the two western princes found their respective spots amongst the families, Sesshoumaru sharing a reclined loveseat with Kagura and Inuyasha in a solitary armchair in a shaded corner away from the light of the fire. Though he had entered with another, all attention seemed to shift unto him as soon as he had situated himself in his chair. He gauged the interest ranging from his father who seemed to care very little of the small expedition to his mother who radiated concern over whether or not he had slain any if not all of the Shinto pantheon. She sat on a large daybed on the left of the General with Akkiyoru to his right, adjacent from Pazuzu and Lilith who seemed too preoccupied with the latter's serpent familiar to pay any attention to the others.

Inuyasha watched as his mother's nose twitched slightly, moving to her eyes when they gleamed with confusion over why the scent of blood seemed nonexistent on his person. Izayoi shifted in her seat uncomfortably, forsaking subtlety and sniffing the air a bit more noticeably.

"Leave him be," Akkiyoru hissed from behind the Inu no Taisho's back, spawning a silent argument between the two women in which their mate had the pleasantry of being in the center of. He had thrown his hair together in a low ponytail in which was tucked under his moko-moko to properly display the black image of the death's head which was burned eternally unto his back as the mark of the ruler of the western quadrant. As the flurry of exaggerated hand signals and telepathic bickering was being gradually replaced by an audible quarrel, the aggravation made itself visible on his face, much to the amusement of the others in the foyer.

"I don't see why it's such a strange thing; maybe he didn't even encounter any angels on Earth today."

"Nonsense, your son told me otherwise."

"Oh…well that is odd then."

Izayoi sat back against the daybed triumphantly, flipping a few rebellious strands of silver hair over her shoulder in the process while Akkiyoru stroked her moko-moko and rolled her eyes at the triviality of the whole endeavor.

"If there is anything I can do to alleviate your distress, please inform me," Inuyasha muttered dryly from his corner, standing from his armchair and moving to the vast selection of glass bottles adorning a set of shelves engraved deeply into the stone walls behind the furniture arrangement. "I shouldn't think half of those to be ours," the Inu no Taisho called over his shoulder, accidentally interrupting the simultaneous inquiries of his two mates. "Most are Beelzebub's; I would watch what you pick." The clinking of decanters and the various sounds coming from the removal of corks filled the room as focus now turned back to the black-souled inu-youkai, postponing the inevitable interrogation until he found himself something to ease his nerves.

He could easily tell which bottles had been transported from his old home, mostly aged wine and grain alcohols fermented from Hell's limited supply of crops; nothing to suit his tastes. Instead, Inuyasha moved to the back of the shelves and into the alternate choices, discovering many more attractive choices.

_Indeed, the lord of the flies had much more exquisite tastes…wyrm's blood, basilisk blood, enfield's blood. Oh, here we are._

Inuyasha plucked a stopped container from against the wall, admiring the darkened glass as a dull light shone through. "Cherub's blood," he growled in satisfaction, crushing the glass stopper atop the bottle into shimmering dust, he poured the shining contents into a tall glass and rejoined his family by the fire. Sitting once more onto his chair, Inuyasha flicked his hand absent-mindedly towards the others in a gesture that signaled the commencement of a thousand questions jumbled together in a mass of words.

Ignoring the harangue of speech, he decided on explaining the best he could in a recollection that he hoped would suit all those in the room.

"It is so that I met resistance on the surface, yet only a singular entity and one not worth my effort to slay. They had sent one archangel and that was all…Sesshoumaru took me away before I could engage any true opposition." He left some bite at the end of the abridged series of events, looking on as his father and Akkiyoru pivoted their eyes over to their son. Sesshoumaru merely raised his wine to his lips as if the accusing glares met no concern of his, adding to the suspense while he drank.

"You have no idea how difficult it was to get onto Earth as fast as I did. And as for my intervention…do I really need to restate my reasons, little brother?" he asked coldly although in truth harboring no resentment for being put on the spotlight, he simply didn't want to put any more weight on his brother's shoulders by telling everyone how meeting the archangel had "damaged" him. All eyes now turned back to Inuyasha, completely giving up on Sesshoumaru's interrogation.

"Hmph, fine then; there's no need for further discussion of this matter."

He drained the angel's blood quickly as it began to darken around the presence of his aura, taking away the flavor of purity that made it oh so rare for the drinker. "Maybe we can speak on a more comfortable note now," Pazuzu mumbled airily, running a near-skeletal finger over the back of his locust familiar. "Kagura tells me that you failed to accomplish your secondary objective: to find why the angels have been visiting Earth so often. No matter, I already know from all the trips I've taken to the field," he murmured, shifting around in his seat to try and get his dual pairs of blackened wings into a position where they sat right under his weight.

This little announcement seemed to pique everyone's interest as they all leaned in the direction of the southern lord while Inuyasha simply flicked a pointed ear over to him.

"It would seem that the gods are harvesting the technological advances of humans to be refined and used unsparingly in Heaven…"

"What?!"

Pazuzu took in the bewildered reactions of the group around him and smiled to himself, taking sudden interest in how the flames of the hearth rebounded off his midnight colored skin. "Father," Kagura growled, tapping her claws anxiously against her glass. "Out with it!" The Assyrian devil rolled his eyes at the rudeness of his daughter and quickly gulped down the dregs of his wine before finishing his explanation.

"Yes, it would seem they've cultivated quite a resource with those humans. Having no inherent power and only a natural environment seems to have done wonders for their sense of ingenuity. Long story short, the gods of Heaven have adapted select aspects of their domain into those created by humans."

Everyone in the room paused to turn over the new information in their heads, letting the fire-cast shadows provide the only movement in the silent foyer for several minutes. "Exactly what specific areas of Heaven have been adapted from humans," Sesshoumaru inquired earnestly, resting his arms across his thighs where they met clasped in the center, hovering as a conjoined fist in the air.

"Almost everything…from residential planning to wartime management, right down to entertainment outlets and business ethics," Pazuzu answered in a slightly awed tone, illustrating every point in his speech with some degree of hand motion. "What of weapons?" Inuyasha called over from his shaded corner, still carrying an air of disinterest about him. "No but there are some adopted tactics, operational formations, and the like."

"How did you manage to acquire all this information?" Lilith pried in her usual sultry voice, meeting her serpent familiar's forked tongue with her own in a display of pet-like affection. Taking a moment to become absorbed in his mates antics, Pazuzu refilled his glass with black wine and thought about the question. "There are many in Heaven opposed to this new direction of cultural assimilation, seeking ways to destroy it. One such creature is Adramelech, a lower sun god of a forgotten religion. He confides in me many of Heaven's secrets in hopes that we here of Hell's lineage might soon conquer it."

"I'll raise my glass to that," the Inu no Taisho declared enthusiastically, making good on his announcement. "And I'll excuse myself to bed," Inuyasha added lowly, nearly biting his glass in half to drain the rest of the cherub's blood as swiftly as he could before motioning to leave. On the way out of the foyer, a magenta-striped arm shot out and grabbed his wrist, much to the inu-youkai's annoyance. "What?" Sesshoumaru worked through the hostility and fatigue laced within his brother's voice for the sake of not socking him square in the jaw and spawning a fight he wasn't so sure he could win anymore.

"I said we'd talk tonight," the elder demon told him bluntly, using a surprising amount of strength to pull his sibling back towards him when he attempted to ignore him. "Tonight means now, Inuyasha!" The elder demon snarled, sparking a bit of the morning's tension back into the now deathly silent room. Inuyasha waited, standing until Sesshoumaru's claws finally managed to pierce the diamond-tough skin of his forearm and draw tiny droplets of black blood. He could tell that his brother was trying to hide his pain desperately as the caustic liquid began eating away at his flesh, burning every inch of his fingers to the bone and then some.

"I suppose I owe you your audience," Inuyasha mused emotionlessly, mentally willing his tar-like blood to return to his wound and repair it along with its reentry. "Make yourself presentable and join me in my chamber."

A set of horribly deformed claws slashed at empty air as Sesshoumaru cursed his younger brother, looking distastefully towards the spot where he had vanished undoubtedly to his bedroom. He looked down at his charred hand and scowled while he cut it horizontally in half from the palm, hurling the separated bit of flesh into the fire in an expression of anger. It would regenerate faster that way, if skin touched by his brother's blood even could grow anew.

"I don't see why you would even bother," Kagura muttered whimsically in between making lateral lines up her mates severed hand with her tongue. "Kid freaks me out," she concluded, casting a chaste "no offense" towards Inuyasha's parents while the male of the two seemed to agree with her, eliciting a slur of verbal punishment from Izayoi. As the arguing escalated to involve a rather vexed Akkiyoru, Lilith and Pazuzu commenced hurling glass bottles about the room, no reason coming to mind except for adding to the ever growing sense of anarchy.

"You know what," Kagura began sourly, staring at the floor as a bridge of alcohol connected a fur rug to the hearth, igniting it with high flames. "I think I'll join you."

Without saying anything to their respective families, the pair nimbly dove through an open window and flew up towards the veranda stretching out from Inuyasha's bedchamber. They landed noiselessly on the marble architecture, Sesshoumaru brushing his moko-moko behind his shoulder and Kagura folding her reptilian wings to her back.

"Oh and you even brought company, how quaint."

Both turned to see Inuyasha leaning over the railing, stroking Kilala who sat on her haunches obediently next to him, watching the capital city below them. The greater succubus and her inu-youkai mate soon approached him, taking up identical stances across the veranda. "Many of your questions will go unanswered," Inuyasha warned in a somewhat drained tone, looking as if he was about to throw himself over the railing and run away. It almost made Sesshoumaru forget about his purpose in coming to confront him, almost.

"Can you possibly inform us why you seem so fatigued after only less than a day without sleep?" Sesshoumaru asked without a hint of aggression, captivated once more alongside Kagura by the enigma that was his brother.

Inuyasha didn't feel like answering the question in either the truth or a lie. He didn't see his brother or sister fit to know even a scrap of information pertaining to his dead wife, in the event that they even knew what a wife was.

_I suppose that it's this existence that tires me; time seems always to find new things of mine to steal away like a gentle ocean eroding a jagged specimen of limestone over the ages. It all started with Kikyou, then my sanity, then my soul, and now every bit of me feels as if it will blow away in Hell's fierce winds. I'm just tired of the universe, tired of living in it, even tired of destroying. But that's it, isn't it? The final solution, obliterating all to justify her murder, to reduce everything to nonexistence. _

_Only I will remain, a testament of suffering; living with the pain as Belial called it._

_Destruction is the ultimate inescapable fate, it was Satan's truth and now it is mine. _

_I will annihilate everything and preserve myself. That is the only way we can heal._

"So…" Inuyasha began lowly, pushing his previous thoughts to the back of his mind for a later date. "Exactly what happened today in the city?" He hoped his question would divert attention away from the previous topic and if it didn't, he would most likely leave. When the air of silence continued to permeate the atmosphere, Inuyasha slid his gaze across the railing, feeling relieved when he saw his brother and sister wearing pensive expressions.

"We were greeted mostly as liberators, just as father assumed," Sesshoumaru answered after several more moments of mulling over the question. He hadn't forgotten about his earlier inquiry but the truth to that didn't appear as if it would come within the next ten millennia. "Although there was occasional protest but such things were quickly dealt with," he sighed arrogantly, scraping imaginary pieces of dirt from under the claws of his recently-regenerated hand. "We could take a look around right now if you want," Kagura added, hoping for an instance that she might be able to take her brother out of the castle and into an environment where he might loosen up a bit.

"No."

_So much for that then._

"Why not," Sesshoumaru pressed sternly, breaking away from the railing to confront Inuyasha who mirrored the movement but on a much less hostile level. "Because I'm retiring to bed, good night." The younger inu-youkai brushed past his sibling without so much as an eye cast in his direction, heading slowly towards the double doors leading into his room.

"You'll be with us tomorrow," Sesshoumaru demanded, loosing his usual icy nature to the audacity of his brother's actions. "You will not exhibit any further dereliction of duty." Inuyasha turned halfway towards the source of the offensive shouting, bearing a thin line across his lips.

"I'm going back to Earth, exterminate the vermin without me."

Before he had even closed his mouth after uttering the last word of his sentence, Inuyasha found himself sailing over the marble structure of the veranda and through the stone wall, into his bedchamber. Blasting away the pile of debris above him, he immediately got to his feet just in time to catch another right hook from his brother. Once again crashing through several solid walls of fortified brimstone, Inuyasha wasted no time in halting his opponent by sending a shockwave of black energy rippling through the atmosphere.

The younger of the two inu-youkai raised himself slowly from the ground, setting his blackened eyes to the series of abstract holes in the architecture where Sesshoumaru was currently navigating through the thick smog of his brother's corruption. One could tell by the output of negative emotion that he was hell-bent on reestablishing family hierarchy. Kagura waited at his side, pleading for him to stop the aggression only to be rudely swept away as he progressed through the destruction leading up to where Inuyasha stood clouded by darkness.

He refused to move even when both siblings were facing each other with only minimal distance between them, meeting crimson and black eyes with unwavering gazes. "What are we to you, little brother," Sesshoumaru hissed in a feral tone, disgusted by the fact that his knees began to feel too heavy for his legs by the prolonged exposure to such massive levels of impurity. He spared a glance back towards Kagura who sat doubled over a few rooms back in a fit of vicious coughs.

"In truth?"

Sesshoumaru snapped his head back to Inuyasha, slightly disturbed by the deep baritone his voice had become and failing to give a response. "You yourself hold very little intrinsic value to me, though I do harbor a small amount of respect and perhaps a certain affection for as a family member. Saying anything more of you would be a lie and as for the rest…they are similar with minor variations." He looked on in bewilderment as the anger on Sesshoumaru's face seemed to diffuse into something much more complex before his vision was obstructed by another fist landing squarely between his eyes.

This time however, it was a hollow impact. Inuyasha's feet neither left the ground nor even slid back a single inch; he only stood stock still with his brother's arm connected to his face.

"Pathetic."

In one swift movement, Inuyasha sent his claws directly though his brother's head, sending skull fragments and bits of brain matter rocketing through the air. After shaking the gore from his hand, he dispersed his aura and prompted Kagura to come striding into the room as if her mate wasn't laying on the ground with a fist-sized hole punched into his face. "I suppose he deserved that, didn't he?" she sighed, muttering an apology as she swiped a sample of his blood and brought it to the tip of her tongue. "Look, you go to bed or whatever it is you really want to do and I'll take him some place where he can regenerate. I'll even go as far as to tell everyone to shove off and that it was an accident."

And with that, the greater succubus scooped up her fallen lover and motioned to proceed through a hole in the wall, into a corridor leading back to the foyer until a hand rested on her shoulder. She turned; surprised to see Inuyasha who was showing what looked like the highest amount of gratitude he was willing to exhibit at the moment.

"Thank you, little sister."

Kagura nodded and waved a free hand dismissively, going about her business down the hallway before Inuyasha spoke again.

"I will be needing someone to keep watch over me again tomorrow," he called, pointing a clawed finger at his brother who had previously regained some of his facial structure. "I sincerely doubt that he would opt for the occupation once more, what say you?"

The demonic wind sorceress paused mid-step to give him an incredulous look, sporting an expression that was silently asking if he was truly serious.

"In all honesty, I think you'll manage just fine by yourself. Just preserve your body correctly and the rest should take care of itself."

Watching her leave with a shrug, Inuyasha backtracked through the wreckage to his bedchamber where Kilala sat on her haunches, staring outwards at her master and the surrounding rubble. She gave the feline equivalent to a sigh when he simply redirected the crushed stone and destroyed furniture back to its original position to the point where evidence of his previous skirmish was completely nonexistent.

"Mew?!"

Inuyasha ignored the cry of his nekomata familiar as he fell atop his bed, smothering his face with the comfort of the sheets. Half-laying on the mattress, he looked almost like a corpse who in his last breath had tossed himself onto the bed as if it were the embodiment of redemption.

"Mew?"

Turning over to face the object of persistence that now sat next to him, Inuyasha shrugged off the heavier layers of his robes and wedged himself steadily onto the bed.

"Oh he'll most certainly live; Sesshoumaru by nature would never allow himself to be killed by me," he muttered sourly, telekinetically closing the set of large iron shutters over every window in the room to muffle the howling winds outside. "I wonder if father will object to me leaving again as well…I hope not."

"Mew?"

"Yes, I really am going back to Earth tomorrow. I apologize for leaving you here with nothing to entertain yourself with."

"Mew…"

Inuyasha sat up and raised his brows at the notion, rolling his eyes after the nekomata didn't correct herself. "No, I don't have some form of tryst with the angel girl. Why you would think that is beyond me."

…

"What do you mean, I can't take a joke?"

**

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**

The next day

* * *

Inuyasha awoke bolting upright once again, accidentally tossing Kilala halfway across the room as she was sleeping in the indent of sheets that was his lap. He grunted an apology, hooking his arms through a clean set of robes that lay folded on a nearby vanity and plucking his familiar onto his shoulder. She meowed haughtily and her master answered with his usual apathy, opening the doors to the veranda to survey the eclipsed sunrise.

To some it was a beautiful scene, to others it was simply Hell. Rays of harsh sunlight beamed like a wave across the ground, washing over the black landscape and instantly igniting the forested terrain. Crimson-stained clouds hung like evaporated blood over the western quadrant, shrouding the dark sky that stood ominously above them. As soon as the throngs of damned humans began their ritual wailing, Inuyasha commenced scaling the outside wall to the spire which he had left his body in the day before.

Swinging his legs through one of the many arched windows, he found himself back in the solitary setting of circular, domed chamber. Well, almost solitary. In an image that sparked a sense of déjà vu, Inuyasha approached his brother who stood cross-armed on the marbled surface ahead of him. His face now repaired right down to the impeccable bone structure, Sesshoumaru looked as if he might lunge in an attempt to claim vengeance any second. Fortunately for both of them, it seemed as if he realized his place and stepped aside to reveal the reclined chair in which acted as a preservative in conjunction with a transporter for Inuyasha's body.

"So you are heading back to Earth then?" the elder inu-youkai mused arrogantly, wearing his new face like a fine mask depicting the epitome of the ideal emotionless expression. "Shouldn't you be off in the city with father and uncle," Inuyasha retorted dryly, seating himself down upon the chair without meeting his sibling's scrutinizing gaze. Sesshoumaru approached as Kilala hopped down from her master's shoulder, looming over Inuyasha like a predator. "In time, I'll join them. After all, we haven't finished sightseeing in our new domain. Father has directly ordered that you accompany us once you return. Why he's letting you go in the first place is somewhat confusing but unlike you, I obey the will of this family."

"You think me to be offended?" Inuyasha deflected, "If you have no further business here, I'll ask you to leave so that I may proceed into Earth."

Without another word, Sesshoumaru sank into the floor, fazing through the marble with dissatisfaction plastered all over his face.

"Well, now maybe we can do this in peace," Inuyasha sighed, gaining a mew of agreement from Kilala who sat on her haunches beside the lone piece of furniture. "I'll be back by midday, keep watch for me."

Not waiting for a response, Inuyasha quickly placed a few spells over his body and drained his soul outwards, appearing once more as a black smog in the center of the atrium. Cutting a portal to the cosmos of the mortal realm and draining his ambience through it as quickly as possible to spare his nekomata from choking on corruption, Inuyasha hurled himself at the angelic bulkhead between him and the blue planet below.

Little resistance was offered was offered by the barriers, light and white energy alike were seared into burning ozone as the inu-youkai flared up his aura, plummeting at supersonic speeds down to the island of Honshu.

_Let's try Tokyo again…_

Inuyasha slowed his descent upon meeting asphalt in the heart of the capital city of Japan, simultaneously scanning the region for a suitable vessel. Waiting in the center of a busy intersection for the telepathic signal to relay from a body, he looked on while motorists passing through his invisible soul were immediately stricken lifeless by the sheer level of corruption inhabiting the area, resulting in a massive pile-up and several other major accidents.

_Found one._

The cloud of blackness reared back and surged through the streets, stealing the life of countless civilians as it approached a small park between a circle of skyscrapers. It was an ideal place for possession of the unsuspecting, devoid of people now that the series of horrendous vehicular deaths drew the majority of the recreating populace away from the park. Gliding at a leisurely pace, Inuyasha came across a beacon sitting right atop a middle-aged man dozing serenely on bench overlooking a small duck pond.

In one fluid motion, the youkai drained himself into the sleeping human, banishing his mind and taking over his body.

"A good fit…" he muttered in little above a whisper, turning over an arm in front of his eyes as if to examine the quality of the specimen. "But mine is better suited for today's activities."

He looked up to see a tiny black anomaly streak downwards through the atmosphere, leaving a trail of smoke behind it as it slammed into the stone walkway next to the possessed man.

_Why I can't simply retain myself while traveling to Earth is a mystery but this is only a minor distraction anyway, I shouldn't complain._

Once safely back inside his usual shell, Inuyasha started off through the cityscape via a nearby streetside exit into the colossal urban jungle that was Tokyo, Japan. It was a strange sight even for a country with a heightened sense of individual expression, seeing this man with moonlit silver hair and black stripes staining his cheeks with dark robes flowing like poison from his feet. Every head passing by the exposed inu-youkai turned for a second and third glance as he proceeded down a line of storefronts.

His annoyance of being subjected to so many odd looks was quickly alleviated as strange occurrences of the supernatural manner followed behind every footstep, taking the countless pairs of eyes elsewhere. Flowers bent and shed their petals despite the springtime, wilting into foul smelling piles of floral decadence. Animals of all nature yowled submissively before him, shying away on their leashes and into the far corner of their cages once he passed a pet store's display window. Trees along the sidewalk rained down ash from their leaves like a heavy gray snow, dirtying up the ground with sulfuric particles.

Such things continued until he arrived a location that sparked his interest, a catholic church standing amongst the other buildings as an object of defiance towards his presence on Earth. Inuyasha strode up casually to the small board staked into the ground by the entrance, scanning the katakana briefly.

**Welcome all to Sunday Mass**

**Today's Sermon: the Gift of God**

"This should be interesting."

Inuyasha looked steadily across the church grounds as the bell started tolling, signaling the congregation pooled around the entrance of the large structure to file silently inside. Once the last of the flock disappeared behind the heavy oak doors, the inu-youkai crept across the dew-ridden grass over to the small flight of stairs in which he ascended to a small platform before the double doors and the arch of stained glass that wrapped around them.

_I'm not one for the western religions or any monotheism for that matter but assaulting this little gathering of sheep should be sufficient enough to draw a million seraphs to their slaughter. I'll have my vengeance for that embarrassment that occurred yesterday._

It would have been a lie to say that Inuyasha's entrance into the church went unnoticed, nearly everyone gawked at his appearance as he skated down the aisle to sit in the front-right pew which so happened to be empty along with the rest of the row. He could tell that new members were hard to come by despite what looked to be a well-financed organization; everyone there seemed to be regular attendees. The presence of the Christian God was wholly absent from this place, it was evident and yet the sense of piety radiated stronger than most modern churches.

"Oh my, I didn't think anyone sat way up here in front anymore."

Inuyasha was snapped rudely from his studies by a gravely croak of a voice nagging at his canine ears, bringing his attention to an elderly woman who appeared to be having trouble seating herself down upon the pew next to him. He could easily tell that she was plagued by a number of illnesses in her old age by the way she moved and the rasp of her breathing, how she seemed to heave every time she inhaled. "I'm afraid this is the only way I can see Reverend Harris, my eyes just aren't what they used to be."

She shifted uncomfortably upon the slanted wood of her bench, reaching into the purse that lay to her right and fetching out some drops for her eyes which she administered poorly with a shaking hand.

"Those won't help," Inuyasha stated blandly, capturing the old woman's full attention. "You have a malignant tumor in the occipital lobe of your brain; it has rendered you nearly blind" They sat in a noiseless air, Inuyasha twisting his lips into a sneer when the prognosis seemed to never reach the woman's ears. She simply gave him a warm smile and bent slightly into a casual bow. "I'm sorry, my manners must be slipping. My name's Nakamura, Michiko. Nice to meet you, what's your name?"

"I don't introduce myself to the dead."

"Lovely."

Inuyasha flexed his claws in aggravation, cursing the entire human race while he waited for the priest to occupy the pulpit standing before him. Whispers of his mysterious complexion surrounded him, causing a stir whenever his ears swiveled about to focus on a singular discussion pertaining to his otherworldly figure. He was already on a murderous edge as the Reverend climbed the scaffold onto his stage, gesturing to the congregation to open their bibles to a marked page.

"Splendid, I see we have yet another perfect attendance," the man who must have been Reverend Harris announced solemnly, opening his missal onto the pedestal standing in front of him.

"Let us begin. Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory. For ever and ever. Amen."

"Amen," the congregation sounded in a monotone choir.

"Let us pray."

Everyone save the lone youkai folded their hands into a tight knot upon their bibles, moving their lips without words in what looked like pleading diatribes for the end of a puerile suffering or any other selfish request.

Inuyasha was disgusted at the telepathic information that he was receiving from the mass, finding a strange sort of reprieve in the mind of Michiko whose mind was pathetically devoid of any coherent thought. She merely sat in the same position as everyone else except lacking the lip movement, acting as a shell of a woman.

Once Harris broke his prayer, the rest followed quickly and that was when he first laid eyes on Inuyasha. He was an American with a thick accent that was clearly evident during the introduction of the sermon and he was left speechless by the demonic appearance below his pulpit. "I…see we have a new member joining us today. How fortunate, we'll be having communion after the first sermon. Would you like to stand and introduce yourself?"

"No."

The inu-youkai's eyes were now set sternly to the Reverend, looking through him to the core of his existence. Harris began sweating when his gaze refused to turn, tugging at the collar of his cassock for the air that now seemed scarce from his lungs. "Let…let's start," he whined pitifully, redirecting the focus from Inuyasha to himself as his eyes moved elsewhere.

_"Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."_

"Amen," the congregation sounded once more, relieved that their pastor's speech had returned to normal.

"And now for the start of communion," Harris declared, moving down from his pulpit to a small wooden table in front of the aisle where a goblet of wine and a bowl of wafers sat atop a long white sheet. "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup." He left the last few words hang in the air Inuyasha's eyes were once more weighing heavily down atop his soul, acting as a hand of unholy judgment.

"If you are to receive then you must profess openly to us your greatest mortal sin," Harris cried, tugging harshly at his collar. His knees gave once the youkai was before the table, prompting several members of the church to quickly approach their Reverend and examine his health. "My greatest mortal sin, you say?" Inuyasha growled, causing the pastor and those near him flinch. He could smell the fear emanating from them as the candles surrounding the church interior were instantly melted by tall, sapphire flames.

"You, Reverend Harris," Inuyasha proclaimed accusingly towards the now-wheezing priest, taking immense pleasure as he started writhing across the floor. "You have committed debauchery of the highest level by raping and murdering your sister. How humorous, I did the same to my wife." Loud gasps echoed throughout the church as the announcement barreled into the minds of the congregation, starting an outrage of disbelief. The small riot was swiftly transformed into a panic as all the fluid substance in Harris's body was evaporated outwards through his skin, leaving him a fragile and shriveled corpse amongst those next to him who had come to offer aid.

Screams of terror were heard as people raced about the interior of the lofty structure, shrieking once more as they found all exits to be melted shut. They backed themselves as far as they could away from the inu-youkai while he circled around the room, abandoning all hope of escape after even the stained glass refused to break. Whimpers were heard as Inuyasha summoned his sword into an outstretched hand, unsheathing the fang of destruction to reveal its transformed state.

He would savor this, this was one more step towards relieving his past frustrations and it began when the first group of humans was cleaved brutally in half by the large weapon.

The church erupted into pandemonium as patrons ran about in a frenzy, screaming as high as their lungs would permit and scrambling about in a useless search of any means for survival. It wasn't long before the majority lay slain, staining the hallowed ground with pieces of torn flesh and bone.

And so for the second day in a row, Inuyasha sensed a singular white trinity approach just as soon as the heavy oak doors were heaved open by none other then the female archangel. He snapped his head sideways towards her advance, at the same time flipping over a woman crawling across the ground with his heel and planting his foot ferociously onto her face, mashing her skull into a pile of gore, causing Kagome to wince at the sight.

"I would have thought the deaths of a corrupt priest and his followers would grant me something better than you but I suppose not. What business have you with me, angel wretch?"

The archangel simply preened her feathers, acting as if she wasn't highly disturbed by the defaced church. "You missed one," she muttered spitefully, pointing towards Michiko who still sat at her pew bearing a content expression across her face. Kagome's comment fell on two pairs of deaf ears.

"No…this place isn't in your jurisdiction," Inuyasha surmised maliciously, dashing with ungodly speed in front of the archangel with the Tetsusaiga held threateningly behind her head so that she was forced close to him. "You've been personally assigned to me, haven't you? Goody, goody."

_Oh great, I just blew it at only the second meeting!_

"Yeah, so what?" Kagome spat, ducking under the sword only to stand back up in the exact same position a few feet away with the inu-youkai staring dangerously into her platinum-azurite eyes.

_Okay…he's fast._

"Why did they send you," Inuyasha demanded softly in a feral whisper, wedging Kagome's head between Tetsusaiga and a razor sharp claw placed harshly under her chin and drawing a single drop of silver blood. "I…" She stammered, racking her brain for a suitable lie. "You, a human turned angel only a decade ago, why did they send you?" Inuyasha growled, clutching the archangel's throat and attempting to shake the information out of her.

_It's not in her mind; someone's masked her memories since yesterday._

As he was jostling her back and forth, he saw past the initial fear in her eyes back to the familiar confidence and the knowledge that she would undoubtedly withhold the purpose of her investigation to the death. Of course he hadn't tried torture but Inuyasha could tell he was short on time in addition to the fact that his current choking was doing next to nothing seeing as how oxygen deprivation had no harmful effects on immortals. Throwing Kagome across the room and into a scene reminiscent of the activities that transpired the day before despite the fact that she crashed into the pew where Michiko was seated, Inuyasha swung his body around once more towards the entrance just in time to see rays of holy light filter in through the stained glass.

"So you brought your legions with you again, did you now?" He seethed, sheathing his sword in favor of his claws. "This time elder brother isn't here to save them."

Kagome looked up from where she was currently guiding Michiko's recently-departed soul as well as the other victims of the slaughter to gaze outwards towards the doorway. "They're not supposed to be here," she hissed under her breath, laying the old woman's corpse down upon floor and taking a stand next to Inuyasha who looked at her quizzically.

_He killed some halfwit preacher who wasn't even conducting his communion correctly, they're orders shouldn't have overridden mine. Now I'll never find anything on him. Oh well, guess my mission is pointless anyway if they kill him. I can still sense that same hundred thousand from yesterday._

"Girl, don't tell me that stance is to be used against your own kind?"

The archangel looked curiously down to see her hands balled angrily into fists and feet parted, her wings spread to their maximum span in an unarmed attack position. "You wish," she scoffed, carefully correcting her posture and back away from Inuyasha. "Unlike demons, angels never turn against each other, especially not towards seraphs."

"Is that the new set of lies they're spreading around in Heaven? They don't teach Lucifer's rebellion? What about the countless other revolutions…no? Oh, I sincerely pity your ignorance; now if you'll pardon me, I have a horde of your six-winged superiors to slay," Inuyasha announced in a tone that dripped with conceit, stepping out into the archway leading outdoors before pausing as if he had remembered something of grave importance and retreating back inside the church.

Kagome looked at him with a puzzled expression while he strode over to the sheeted pedestal and hefted the goblet from the sheeted surface, downing its contents like an accomplished drunk. He seemed to be startled by something of the fermented beverage, earning the archangel a wry frown.

"Sheesh, what's with that look?"

"Are you just going to stand there all day or attend to your duty?" Inuyasha fired back, racing once more to the church's exit and down the steps to a small courtyard.

"Well after you didn't immediately kill me like I thought you would, I'm not exactly sure what to do," Kagome called after him as she descended the steps in a vain attempt to catch up, getting another strange expression from over Inuyasha's shoulder.

_**Hmm…you found something you don't like?**_

_For a figment of my posthumously manifested moral sense, you're most certainly devoid of any knowledge of my thoughts. _

_**It was sarcasm, you fool; I know all of which disturbs you so greatly. You've tasted wine for the first time since her death and you're not sure why. **_

_I'm going to kill you if you come out into the physical realm._

_**Murder is not the final solution, Belial has found it so why can't you, I wonder.**_

Inuyasha cursed his own thoughts as he found himself back in the lightly forested grounds of the park in which he first entered Earth, scanning the unlikely possibility that all beings with black minds were forced to endure a dual personality. His bitter ponderings were cut short by the arrival of Kagome who touched down a small wary distance away from him, folding her wings tightly to her back. She seemed content with observing, refusing to move a single step closer to the inu-youkai and taking a seat upon a nearby park bench as the holy aura surrounding the city grew stronger.

_What does she want? Is the sight of so many seraphs being massacred so attractive to her?_

_**She's been assigned to you, you can use that.**_

_You're actually being helpful?_

_**No, I want you to keep her close and alive so I can study her comparatively.**_

Before he could ask who his conscience might compare her to, a flash of white light illuminated the sky and sent a cleansing ambience over the city. All humans were rendered unconscious and transported either to an inter-dimensional storage facility or Heaven to be kept safe from the fighting that would undoubtedly ensue.

"Protecting your harvest, are you?" Inuyasha muttered, flaring up his black aura and dulling the purifying atmosphere considerably to where the cloudless sky was visible once more. It wasn't long before the seraphs began their glorious descent down to the mortal realm, landing upon the grass where their creative energies spawned a field of lightly-colored flowers save for a large circle surrounding Inuyasha. They were six-winged angels, dressed in polished silver armor engraved with Holy Scriptures, wearing thin crimson robes tucked under their gauntlets and greaves.

"Black youkai, Inuyasha," They uttered simultaneously in their melodic voices, adding to the symphony by unsheathing their weapons with metallic scrapes. "There is an order for your immediate execution, surrender so that we may kill you without trivial resistance."

"Hey, hold on a second!"

One hundred thousand and one heads all turned to face Kagome who was fuming as she approached the seraph nearest her and jabbed her finger hard into their chest in annoyance. "Where do you get all get off intruding on my assignment, who ordered this?"

The accused angel looked confusedly towards his brethren and received a multitude of un-synched nods of encouragement. "We come under the order of his Holiness, the Lord and Father to Christian men," it answered nobly, casting a cautious glance towards Inuyasha who seemed content on him finishing his explanation. "All proper documentation has been approved by your pantheon in time for this invasion. It was said unto us that you had been compromised in the field and we were dispatched to protect and preserve the newest white trinity to grace our united Heavens."

"Well that's all well and good but can we get on with it," Inuyasha snarled, removing his claws from the seraph's chest cavity and swatting him brutally away with the back of his hand, meeting Kagome's horrified eyes with his own pair of glossy black orbs.

"I'll be with you soon enough, don't worry."

She watched as the bones in his face were contorted with sickening cracks as he disappeared behind a shroud of black smoke, enveloping the entire park in an infernal haze. Those seraphs without at least a single white immortal element were instantly reduced to heaps of bone and dusted flesh, corrupted into what would later become a demon of Hell. Their numbers greatly reduced without even a single attack, the six-winged angels along with Kagome backpedaled to the edge of the park to wait out the storm of impurity until it settled into the transformed inu-youkai.

Black fur was complimented by heavy, rolling thunderheads that darkened the sky upon the beast's arrival, blotting out the remnants of initial cleanliness introduced by the seraphs. Winds of combined corruption and youki stormed through the once serene environment, burning everything of Earth they came across into smoldering remnants of their former beauty.

Kagome gawked at the hellish creature rising from the ground before her, swearing that the black-vermillion eyes met hers for an incalculably short moment. She backed away even further as several of her feathers began to shake free of her wings, yet not even close to the demoralizing snow of Seraph plumage falling like large snow flakes from the spots in which they flew like the looming sense of judgment high above the great dog.

The record of their survival was hideous, many were corrupted within the first minute as Inuyasha pounced from the ground into the air and began tearing their bodies into shreds at numbers ranging from two to a dozen in a single bite. He continued, unfazed by the hail of swords and spears deflecting pitifully from his invulnerable flesh. Those that were not slain immediately by his aura were disemboweled later by his claws and fangs, raining down chunks of meat upon Kagome who tried her hardest not to flee the scene and abandon her duty at the sight of so many of Heaven's finest falling like flies stricken by the swatting paws of the infernal beast above.

Within the hour, Inuyasha was back on the ground and reverted into his humanoid form, approaching a terrified Kagome who stood paralyzed amidst the carnage. "This is what they sent to execute me, I'm insulted," he stated in his most regal voice, studying the speechless archangel in front of him. "Well at least now I know what it takes to silence you."

She looked at him with unbridled fear, successfully cracking the frozen amber that made up his eyes. The shimmer of altered personality did not go unnoticed and Kagome sensed something odd about him, deciding against flat-out asking what had caused his gaze to falter into such an unfittingly delicate expression. "I suppose I've given you a bad memory, huh?" He murmured softly, grating out bits of flesh from under his claws.

"What did you just…"

"You'd do well to forget it, angel wench," he retorted sharply, repairing his broken visage. "But perhaps I'll aid you in this little assignment, meet me in thirty-six hours in this same spot and we'll have a chat over wine. However, if you stand me up, I'll invade Heaven and tear your throat as you wake the next morning."

_This is your influence._

_**Maybe…but some good will come of it, just you wait. Feeding her some false information might give us yet another edge against those cowards called gods.**_

Kagome just nodded dumbly, not fully registering the bizarre proposition and fighting the urge to smack the inu-youkai for corrupting so many of her superiors. "Wait…what?"

"What?! What are you up to, making up nonsense like that; trying to help me out for some forsaken mission that I'm not even sure what the main purpose is?"

"Oh well, that's just a hidden truth. Meet me, angel wretch and maybe a compromise with mutual benefits can be reached in conjunction with the fulfillment of this assignment of yours."

_I don't like this. What's he up to?_

"I'm up to nothing, good day."

And with that, Inuyasha cut a dimensional rift through the air and set one foot inside the eighth circle of Hell, sparing Kagome one last glance when she started to run towards him. He laughed maniacally when she stopped dead in her tracks to look down with a horrified grimace, finding her foot to be lodged inside the disfigured ribcage of a defeated seraph.

"I think I'm going to lose my lunch."

"I think I just found mine."

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Author's note:

Sorry for another late chapter but I started to advance the plot at a faster rate than I had initially intended (this is going to be a 300,000 word + story/series).

Please point out any mistakes in grammar or catholic proceedings but keep in mind that the falsity of the communion was intentional and the fact that I have never once attended a single mass. So correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have a beta (I should really look for one).

Don't forget to REVIEW!


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